Credit union regulator issues employment ban against Carmel man
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A Carmel man who pleaded guilty in April to helping steal $2.1 million from Indianapolis-based Financial Center First Credit Union has been permanently banned from working in the industry.
Jose Prado-Valero of Carmel was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to one count of financial institution fraud. Prado-Valero was also ordered to pay $2,132,517 in restitution.
According to the Bureau of Prisons website, Prado-Valero, 35, is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, with a scheduled release date of Sept. 6, 2026.
The National Credit Union Administration—the entity that regulates federal credit unions—issued a prohibition permanently banning Prado-Valero from working for a federally insured depository institution. The prohibition covers federal credit unions, banks and the agencies that regulate them.
The NCUA signed the prohibition order against Prado-Valero on July 1 and announced it Wednesday.
NCUA spokesman Joseph B. Adamoli told IBJ that the order remains in place unless and until the NCUA’s board removes or overturns it. The removal or overturning of a prohibition order, Adamoli added, “is a very rare occurrence.”
According to court documents and the NCUA prohibition order, Prado-Valero worked as an Automated Clearing House coordinator at Financial Center First from 2016 through August 2019. As part of his job, he had access to credit union members’ account numbers, account balances, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and telephone numbers.
Sometime before Feb. 14, 2019, Prado-Valero was approached by individuals outside the credit union who wanted his help in defrauding the financial institution, the plea agreement says. Prado-Valero agreed to provide those individuals with credit union members’ personal and account information so that the individuals could unlawfully access the members’ accounts.
Prado-Valero and his accomplices made about 34 fraudulent transfers totaling $2.1 million between February and August 2019, and Prado-Valero’s accomplices paid him more than $100,000 for his role in the scheme, the plea agreement says.
“Financial Center is grateful to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their roles in the conviction of Mr. Prado-Valero,” Executive Vice President of Credit Union Operations Jennifer Rue said in a written statement. “Financial Center’s internal monitoring was able to quickly identify and stop Mr. Prado-Valero’s fraud scheme and we immediately made our impacted members whole.”
Rue said the credit union did not discern any pattern among the accounts that were compromised.