BEAUMONT, Texas–The man convicted of defrauding Neches FCU out of $2-million with the assistance of a former assistant branch manager has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison, and ordered to repay the financial institution for its losses.
U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Crone sentenced Eulice Emerson “Trey” Alvey, 50, of Nome, to 57 months in federal prison for bank fraud during a hearing in Beaumont. Judge Crone also ordered Alvey to pay $2,075,458.57 in restitution, according to KDFM.
According to information presented in court, on Sept. 6, 2018, a Neches FCU member contacted the credit union and reported there were loans reflected on their account that they did not request, the report stated.
Members Raise Questions
“Shortly thereafter, another member notified the credit union that they also had loans on their account that were not theirs,” KDFM reported. “This type of notification then became common over the next few weeks, involving as many as 30 members, all associated with Billy Ray Thomas, an assistant branch manager for NFCU.”
Court documents said an investigation revealed Thomas was working with Alvey on the scheme, with Alvey fabricating fraudulent purchase invoices for tractors from his business, Oil City Tractor, LLC, and sending the invoices to Thomas.
Thomas would then use credit union members’ information to request a loan.
Proceeds Shared
“Once the loan was approved, Thomas would share the proceeds with Alvey and they would use the money for personal and business ventures,” KDFM stated. “In April 2025, Thomas was sentenced to 34 months in federal prison.”
ATM Theft by Insider
In Union City, Calif., Tamim Ghulam Haidar has been charged with embezzling nearly $1 million from ATMs while working for Wells Fargo bank.
Ghulam Haidar, who was a branch operations associate manager at the bank, is accused of “knowingly and intentionally” embezzling $947,000 from the ATMs at the Union City Wells Fargo, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of California as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Dollar Amounts Didn’t Correspond
“From February 2021 to October 2022, Haidar inputted dollar amounts into the banking system that did not correspond with the actual amount of cash he deposited into the machines, court documents filed in Oakland said,” the Chronicle reported. “Haidar would steal the excess cash he did not put into the ATMs and deposit the funds into accounts that he owned or controlled, prosecutors said.
Ghulam Haidar allegedly used the stolen funds to cover losses “he incurred while trading in the foreign currency markets,” prosecutors said.
