Retired Bucks County Credit Union CEO Sentenced For Embezzlement

BENSALEM, PA — A federal court judge sentenced a retired Bucks County credit union CEO to nearly four years behind bars for embezzling funds from six Philadelphia-area federal credit unions. In addition to her prison sentence, the judge ordered Joan Brown, 80, of Bristol to pay more than $1 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

After Brown preyed on these credit unions, prosecutors said they ultimately failed and were liquidated by the National Credit Union Association.

“The credit unions contracting with Service Center for Credit Unions [where Brown served as CEO] depended on the company to ably manage their financial matters,” said Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “Joan Brown took full advantage of that trust, dipping into accounts and stealing money for herself, over and over again, for years."

In September 2020, Brown pleaded guilty to six counts of embezzlement of credit union funds and 11 counts of making false entries in credit union records arising from her taking more than $1 million over several years from six small credit unions, prosecutors said.

“Credit unions, by their nature, are cooperative institutions which rely on the support of everyone involved to function and remain safe places to save and borrow money,” Acting U.S. Attorney Williams said in a news release. “In her position as the CEO of a credit union management company, Brown destroyed six such credit unions with her greed and dishonesty."

Brown is the former CEO of the Bensalem-based Service Center for Credit Unions. Prosecutors said she was well-known in the credit union community in the Philadelphia area. In fact, according to court document, in the past she had been described as “the face of credit unions in Philadelphia.”