[Orual]

Rather than shut down its entire ATM operation and believing it was helping its 300,000 members during a traumatic time, the union continued to allow withdrawals without knowing whether those making the withdrawals had the money in their accounts to cover them.

No good deed goes unpunished. Very disturbing story.

[apillar]

It always amazes me when I hear about stories like this. These people have to KNOW that they are going to get caught sooner or later. I mean if I go to a ATM machine and put in my ATM card for $100 and get $10,000 I'm going to walk right into the bank, hand them $9,900 and tell them their machine is messed up. It's not really even a matter of honesty, I know the bank would have all my information from my card as well as my photo from that little camera on the ATM machine, so what would I gain by taking off with the money. It's like robbing a bank and leaving your drivers license on the counter.

[First_Salute]

From the article:

"Fifteen million dollars was looted from the city's Municipal Credit Union by its own members - including city employees, health care professionals and education workers - when a computer failure caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center allowed virtually unlimited access to money in automated teller machines ... Sixty-six people who withdrew $7,500 or more beyond what was in their accounts have been arrested ... and 35 are being sought for arrest ... "

From Tom Ridge, President's Bush's top man at the HomeLand Security Operation in Washington, DC, in an article at The Washington Times, August 1, 2002:

Department of Hollow Security? (scroll down to paragraph no. 7)

 " ... The vast majority of federal employees are capable, dedicated public servants. ... "

Sure. The article above, may as well have read:

from the Federal Credit Union by its own members - including government employees, federal health care professionals and federal public education workers, members of the N.E.A. -

[cynicom]

The gentleman was very, very naive.

[gridlock]

Also on Yahoo

Workers Accused of Credit Union Theft

Tue Aug 6, 2:11 AM ET

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - In one of the largest fraud cases resulting from the terrorist attacks, thousands of people are accused of using ATMs to steal $15 million from a municipal employees' credit union whose computer security system was damaged on Sept. 11.

Sixty-six people have been arrested and 35 more were being sought in the scheme, authorities said Monday.

District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the suspects found a way to repeatedly withdraw up to $500 a day from ATMs — even if their accounts at the Municipal Credit Union couldn't cover it.

The problem stems from Sept. 11, when the attack on the World Trade Center damaged a nearby building housing the credit union's computer system.

Credit union officials soon realized they could not properly monitor the computer network that handles automated teller transactions. But they decided to allow withdrawals without the normal banking safeguards so they would not offend members affected by the tragedy.

"This is a prime example of no good deed goes unpunished," Morgenthau said.

"People took advantage." He said as many as 4,000 people manipulated the system to overdraw their bank accounts by at least $1,000. Of that group, more than 540 credit union members exceeded their balances by more than $5,000.

According to authorities, a 54-year-old nurse made 54 cash withdrawals from Sept. 18 to the end of October, leaving her with a negative balance of $18,111.

A Housing Authority employee allegedly made dozens of withdrawals, using his credit union card to make purchases at a barbecue restaurant, a liquor store and a motel. A school safety officer allegedly made 80 withdrawals in a five-week span, leaving her account more than $11,000 in debt.

The computer problem was fixed in November, and investigators began tracing the illicit withdrawals. Authorities said a handful of people, when confronted about the transactions, agreed to take out loans to pay the money back.

Those who "took the least amount" will be able to pay back the credit union, Morgenthau said.

Since Sept. 11, local and federal prosecutors have already charged more than 90 people on a variety of fraud counts, many involving false claims for assistance. No case has involved as many people as the one announced Monday.

--------------------------------------

Wonder how many of these thieves were members of the Teachers Unions?

My favorite: A Housing Authority employee allegedly made dozens of withdrawals, using his credit union card to make purchases at a barbecue restaurant, a liquor store and a motel.

DA Morgenthau will be the least of this guy's problems when his wife finds out!