Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, June 23:
Woman pleads guilty to $340,000 theft from credit union
A Rostraver woman pleaded guilty this week to taking $340,200 from a Monessen-based federal credit union almost seven years ago, then staging a fire in the safe to cover the theft, according to court documents.
Pattylynn Mavrakis, 65,pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan in Pittsburgh in connection with the scheme to steal the money from the Valley 1st Community Federal Credit Union safe on Sept. 6, 2016. Mavrakis then filed a false insurance report with CUNA Mutual Group of Madison, Wis., to reimburse the credit union, according to the indictment filed against her in August 2021. CUNA paid the claim in December 2016.
Prosecutors said Mavrakis claimed the fire was started by a malfunction in an electrical wire.
Mavrakis, who was a branch manager at the credit union at the time of the theft, faces a possible 20-year prison sentence and a fine no more than double the $340,200 she stole from the credit union for her personal use. She has been free on a $50,000 unsecured bond, pending her sentencing scheduled for Oct. 11.
