Woman Sentenced In Credit Union Embezzlement

MONROE (WWJ/AP) - An Ohio woman who authorities say embezzled $2.1 million from a small credit union in Michigan has been sentenced to at least 45 months in prison.

Sharon Broadway of Toledo was in court Thursday in Monroe County to learn her punishment. She faced up to 20 years in prison after earlier pleading guilty to felony embezzlement and racketeering charges.

A judge also ordered Broadway to pay $2,598,000 in res­ti­tu­tion and barred her from working in the fi­nan­cial in­dus­try.

Authorities say Broadway stole money for more than 20 years from the United Catholic Credit Union in Temperance, near the Ohio border. Broad­way was de­scribed by the At­tor­ney Gen­eral of­fice as the credit union's "man­ager, sec­re­tary, board mem­ber, and sole em­ployee."

Investigators say Broadway hid her ac­tions for nearly us­ing a scheme that in­cluded not recording cer­tif­i­cates of de­posit on credit union books. Prosecutors say the em­bez­zle­ment was discovered dur­ing a rou­tine ex­ami­na­tion by reg­u­la­tors.

The credit union was closed in August when problems were detected. Because of insurance, no depositor lost money.

Defense lawyer Lorin Zaner told The Blade of Toledo that Broadway is "very apologetic for what happened and how she's let so many people down."

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