Municipal Credit Union was founded in 1916 for municipal workers in New York City. John Purroy Mitchel, New York City's Mayor at the time, wanted city employees to have alternatives to loan sharks and encouraged the chartering of the organization. On November 2, 1977, the New York State Banking Department took over MCU for a brief time, citing loan delinquencies and corruption of Board members. In 1986, following the collapse of Hyfin Credit Union amidst charges of fraud and embezzlement, Hyfin was merged with Municipal Credit Union. A computer error in 2001 after the September 11 attacks allowed credit union members to withdraw amounts in excess of their accounts. In the month following the attacks, $15 million was stolen from MCU ATMs by its own members. 118 members were charged in the thefts. CEO Kam Wong was placed on leave in February 2018 and arrested for embezzlement and fraud later that year in May. For at least five years, Wong had been participating in insurance fraud and cash embezzlement through MCU's ATMs, and spent millions of dollars of this cash on lottery tickets. On November 19, 2018 Kam Wong, the former chief executive officer and president of MCU pled guilty in Manhattan federal court to embezzling millions of dollars from the Credit Union. He will be sentenced on April 5, 2019. May 17, 2019 announcement: "The New York State Department of Financial Services today took possession of Municipal Credit Union, located in New York City, and appointed the National Credit Union Administration as conservator. Member deposits at Municipal Credit Union remain protected by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. Administered by the NCUA, the Share Insurance Fund insures individual accounts at the credit union up to $250,000, and a member’s interest in all joint accounts combined is insured up to $250,000. The Share Insurance Fund also separately protects IRA and KEOGH retirement accounts up to $250,000. The Share Insurance Fund has the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States. Member services will continue uninterrupted at all of the credit union’s 22 branch locations in the New York metropolitan area. Members can continue to conduct normal financial transactions, deposit and access funds, make loan payments, and use shares during the conservatorship." https://www.ncua.gov/newsroom/press-release/2019/municipal-credit-union-conserved
