CREDIT UNION HEAD IN EMBEZZLE BUST:

Credit union boss robs $3M – for lotto tix, feds say

THE HEAD OF the city’s oldest credit union embezzled money from the fund for years — splurging on millions worth of lottery tickets — by submitting bogus invoices for dental work and other expenses, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Kam Wong, 62, from Valley Stream, L.I., who heads the Municipal Credit Union, allegedly used the ill-gotten gains to purchase some $3.55 million in New York Lottery tickets, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.

He also “obtained numerous other payments from the credit union under suspicious or questionable circumstances” from at least 2013 through January 2018, Berman said.

The embezzlement included lining his pockets with millions in cash payments instead of a long-term disability policy, prosecutors said. He also allegedly expensed millions for taxes to cover those payments.

On Tuesday, Wong (right) was charged in Manhattan Federal Court with fraud, embezzlement and aggravated identity theft.

Wong — who ascended to an MCU leadership position after a financial scandal in the mid-1980s — got reimbursed for repairs made on a credit union leased luxury car, prosecutors said. The repair work was covered by insurance.

Wong also made cash withdrawals from a business credit card “testing” the credit union’s ATMs, the criminal complaint says. He also allegedly filed “substantial” educational, housing, and living expenses for two of his friends’ relatives who were hired as credit union interns, authorities said.

He took “tens of thousands of dollars in annual cash advances” from the fund, court records show. He has been unable to explain where that money went, prosecutors said.

According to the complaint, Wong deposited some of the money from the various schemes into a credit union account that he tapped more than 2,500 times over the course of the five year period.

All told, he withdrew $1.9 million from that account.

In February, he was placed on leave by the fund’s board of directors.

Wong’s lawyer maintained Wong did nothing wrong.

“Kam Wong has added tremendous value to the credit union and under his stewardship, there have been record profits,” said Jeffrey Lichtman. “Any actions he committed were done transparently and openly, with full consent of the credit union’s board.”

Before his arrest, Wong was hailed as an American success story. He came to New York from Hong Kong when he was 19 and lived with his family in a small apartment.

In 2006, he was named the head of the MCU.

The credit union has some 400,000 members and $2.5 billion in assets. It provides loans primarily to municipal workers.