Topsham Woman Pleads Guilty to Stealing Money from Credit Union

PORTLAND, ME—United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Marsha Richard, 42, of Topsham, Maine, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby in U.S. District Court in Portland to theft by a credit union employee.

According to court records, from about November of 2004 to October of 2010, Richard, who was an employee of Atlantic Regional Federal Credit Union in Brunswick, engaged in a scheme to steal credit union funds. Richard manipulated accounting entries for checks that credit union members had deposited but that had been returned for insufficient funds. Instead of crediting the appropriate internal account, Richard credited her own account or the accounts of family members or friends. She then accessed the funds that she had wrongfully diverted for her own use. Richard stole over $500,000 of Atlantic Regional funds through her scheme.

Richard faces a maximum possible sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment and a $1 million fine on the charge. She will be sentenced after completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the United States Probation Office.

The investigation that led to today’s proceeding was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Brunswick Police Department.