A former Orange County bank branch manager has consented to sanctions by a U.S. Treasury agency for stealing cash from the bank five years ago.
Meg James stole about $5,800 from her assigned cash box at a branch of Wallkill Valley Federal Savings and Loan Association in April 2018, according to a consent order issued on March 29 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
She was working as the branch manager in Walden, according to a blog posted by the bank in 2017.
The order says James engaged in unsafe or unsound practices that “involved personal dishonesty.”
The order does not provide details about the circumstances of the theft and how it was discovered or explain why James is being sanctioned five years later.
James neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing in consenting to sanctions.
She agreed not to participate in the affairs of any government-insured depository institutions, such as banks and credit unions, or in any banking regulatory agencies.
Wallkill Valley Federal Savings and Loan Association promotes itself as the “perfect combination of old-fashioned values and modern technology.”
It was chartered in 1913. Now it has headquarters and six branches in Orange County and one branch in Ulster County. It is classified as a small community bank.
The branches include Highland Falls, Maybrook, Milton, Monroe, Montgomery, Newburgh, Otisville, and Walden.
Last year, the Comptroller of the Currency rated Wallkill Valley’s performance in meeting the credit needs of its communities as satisfactory, under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.
By the end of 2021, it had assets of $383 million and a loan portfolio of nearly $260 million. Most of the loans were for home mortgages.
