A former top Georgia credit union executive has pleaded guilty in a fraudulent loan scheme.
Ardonus “Donna” Perkins, 40, of Atlanta, who was assistant vice president of risk management for the Credit Union of Georgia, pleaded guilty to a mail fraud that cost the credit union more than $300,000, federal authorities said.
From January 2008 through August 2010, acting U.S. attorney John Horn said, Perkins used the names of unknowing family members and friends to open signature loans and true lines of credit at the credit union — open-ended personal lines of credit.
Perkins took the funds from the loans for her personal use, Horn said, and secretly refinanced auto loans without the vehicle owners’ knowledge or approval, taking the proceeds. She also set up fraudulent VISA accounts in the names of family members and friends, receiving cash advances on those accounts without their knowledge, the government said.
The scheme was detected when Perkins was fired in 2010 for policy violations, authorities said. She had continually increased the loan limits and available credit limits on the loans to obtain more funds, authorities said. And, in order to conceal the scheme, authorities added, she used some of the money she fraudulently received to pay down the loans, lines of credit, and credit card accounts she had established in the names of others.
Perkins is scheduled to be sentenced on July 30.
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