Former Credit Union Fraud Ops Manager Convicted of… FRAUD

Former Credit Union Fraud Ops Manager Convicted of… FRAUD

Billings, MT – May 23, 2025 – A former fraud operations manager at Altana Federal Credit Union was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison on Tuesday for embezzling over $65,000 from the institution, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme announced.

Kelly Jo Muzzana, 40, of Billings, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to immediately repay $65,046.37 in restitution. U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided over the case.

Muzzana pleaded guilty in July 2024 to charges of embezzlement by a credit union employee. Court documents revealed that throughout 2023, Muzzana, in her role as operations manager, exploited her access to customer data and her oversight of Altana’s fraud-alert process to steal funds.

She created duplicate bank cards for customer accounts, took undelivered cards sent to the bank, and used them for personal purchases at retailers like Target and Walmart in Billings, as well as online.

To cover her tracks, Muzzana personally managed many of the resulting fraud claims. However, her scheme unraveled when a customer reported one of her fraudulent transactions to law enforcement. Upon learning of the investigation from a detective’s call to Altana, Muzzana downloaded a recording of the call, fled the credit union, and never returned.

Altana reimbursed all affected customers for the stolen funds. In a victim impact statement, Altana’s CEO, Jason Hagadone, highlighted the damage caused, stating, “Our members entrust us with one of the most important aspects of their life: their finances. Kelly breached that trust by stealing and using their debit cards,” adding that the incident posed significant reputational risk to the credit union.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Hargrove and investigated by the Billings Police Department and the FBI.

Source: FBI

Former Credit Union Fraud Ops Manager Convicted of… FRAUD – Former Credit Union Fraud Ops Manager Convicted of… FRAUD – Former Credit Union Fraud Ops Manager Convicted of… FRAUD

Former Credit Union Fraud Ops Manager Convicted of… FRAUD – Arrest – Arrest – Lending – Fraud