JACKSON, Miss. — A forensic auditor has identified $73.3 million in losses at Jackson Area Federal Credit Union that the National Credit Union Administration attributes directly to former CEO Leigh Bridges, according to a new court filing in the agency’s civil case against her.
The estimate, disclosed in a Sept. 23 filing and reviewed by the CU Daily, exceeds the more than $51 million in allegedly false account entries the agency previously identified. It comes as the NCUA fights Bridges’ request to use frozen retirement funds for living expenses and $250,000 in attorney fees.
The amounts are the NCUA’s allegations and estimates. A court has not determined how much was taken or ruled that Bridges is liable.
The NCUA, acting as conservator of the Mississippi credit union, asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to deny Bridges’ motion to modify a preliminary injunction freezing her assets. The agency argues that her retirement account should remain available to help satisfy a potential judgment, even if the money in it cannot be traced directly to the alleged misappropriation.
How NCUA Says the Money Moved
Bridges became Jackson Area FCU’s president and CEO in 2021 after serving as its chief financial officer, according to the filing. As every credit union knows and as the filing states, as CEO, she was responsible for preparing and signing its financial statements.
The NCUA cited declarations from credit union and agency officials who said Bridges acknowledged during an April 17 meeting with board members and two NCUA examiners that she had used credit union money for personal purchases, including expensive jewelry and handbags, and had transferred funds into her own accounts. According to the declarations cited in the filing, she also acknowledged concealing missing money by overstating an amount recorded on the credit union’s general ledger in connection with its corporate credit union.
The agency alleges that false deposits were manually entered into accounts belonging to Bridges and her husband, Chad Bridges. The entries used a transaction code for share deposits and descriptions suggesting electronic funds transfers, although the money actually came from the credit union’s general ledger rather than an outside institution, the filing says.
Some entries named Acorns Investing, JPMorgan Chase Bank and Raymond James Financial as their purported sources, according to NCUA. Those names appeared in the transaction descriptions; the filing does not allege that the institutions participated in the transfers.
More Than $73 Million
The agency said the entries totaled more than $51 million across an account held by Leigh Bridges and a joint account held by the couple, beginning in 2015. Its forensic auditor has now determined that $73,325,828.54 in credit union losses resulted directly from what the agency alleges was her misappropriation.
The NCUA also compared the couple’s alleged spending with their payroll deposits. Between May 1, 2019, and May 4, 2026, about $705,637 from Leigh Bridges’ salary and $397,035 from Chad Bridges’ salary entered their joint credit union account after payroll deductions, according to the filing. The agency said millions of dollars passed through their accounts to pay personal expenses. It alleges that misappropriated funds supported the couple’s lifestyle and benefited a third defendant, Tina Funez.
The filing further alleges that Bridges told the credit union’s board that the institution was well capitalized and doing well while concealing its true financial position. The NCUA contends those actions support its claims that she converted credit union funds and breached her duties as CEO.
Dispute over Retirement Contributions
Bridges has argued that her retirement funds cannot be traced to money allegedly taken from Jackson Area FCU, according to the NCUA’s filing. The agency responds that a federal statute allowing it, as conservator, to seek court control of assets to secure a potential recovery applies even to assets that are not proceeds of the alleged misconduct.
The NCUA also disputes her reliance on a Mississippi law exempting retirement accounts from attachment. In its view, its federal authority takes precedence over that exemption and over any conflicting protection under federal employee benefits law. Those are the agency’s legal arguments; the court has not decided them in this filing.
Separately, the NCUA argues that some retirement contributions could themselves be recoverable. It said the credit union contributed an amount equal to 23.5% of Bridges’ salary to her retirement account during the five years before conservatorship, in addition to contributions drawn from her salary. Bridges was also a trustee of the retirement plan, according to the filing.
The agency contends that a disloyal employee could be required to forfeit compensation earned during the period of misconduct. On that theory, it argues, contributions tied to Bridges’ compensation could be challenged as transfers made under fraudulent pretenses. The filing suggests that the size of the employer contributions raises questions about whether money was being sheltered, but it does not establish that Bridges arranged them for that purpose.
The immediate question is whether the account remains frozen. Whether any retirement funds could ultimately be taken to satisfy a judgment would be decided later, the NCUA acknowledged.
Living Expenses and Attorney Fees
Bridges says she cannot pay basic living expenses, obligations imposed by the court or her legal bills without access to retirement funds, according to the filing. She has said she is seeking employment but has not found another full-time job.
The NCUA argues that she has not supplied a detailed account of the living expenses she wants to pay or enough information about other resources that might be available. It also says she has not provided billing records sufficient to assess the proposed $250,000 attorney payment. Because Bridges already has counsel representing her in the civil case and an ongoing criminal investigation, the agency argues that keeping the funds frozen would not deprive her of representation.
The filing cites an earlier NCUA allegation that Bridges used at least $17,714.95 in gift cards obtained through American Express rewards points in less than 12 weeks. The agency points to that spending in challenging her account of her finances. It also questions how current expenses are being paid; those questions are not findings that Bridges violated the injunction.
Additional Arguments
The NCUA said it has not formally valued the assets it knows the couple owns, although it cited an estimate of about $25 million suggested by Bridges’ counsel. The agency argues that even assets of that value would fall far short of its newly estimated $73.3 million loss, making preservation of the retirement account important to any eventual recovery.
The civil lawsuit names Leigh Bridges, Chad Bridges and Funez as defendants. The latest filing addresses Leigh Bridges’ request to change the asset freeze; the NCUA has also opposed a separate request by her husband. The court has not ruled on Leigh Bridges’ motion in the materials provided.
