Former Manager of CBS Credit Union Sentenced

Edward Rostohar, 62, of Studio City, has been sentenced to 14 years and one month in federal prison for his involvement in a 20-year embezzlement in which investigators said he stole an estimated $25 million from the now-defunct CBS Employees Federal Credit Union, the Los Angeles Times reported today. With interest, the losses totaled $40 million for the credit union. According to the article, the scheme consisted of a series of payments Rostohar made to himself since 2000. He apparently forged the signature of another employee without their knowledge on at least one occasion. The scheme unraveled earlier this year when a credit union employee discovered a $35,000 check made payable to Rostohar. That employee conducted an audit and discovered $3.78 million in checks payable to Rostohar between January 2018 and March. Rostohar was arrested March 13, and in May pleaded guilty to a felony count of bank fraud. Rostohar said he gambled away much of the money and used the rest to buy luxury cars and jewelry, travel via private jet and to fund a coffee business he started in Reno last winter. The National Credit Union Administration liquidated the CBS Employees Federal Credit Union in late March after discovering the embezzlement and determining the lender was insolvent as a result. University Credit Union of Westwood absorbed CBS’s assets, loans and shares.