Man arrested for allegedly stealing thousands in bank loan scheme
“I mean you feel really really taken advantage of.”
Police are investigating after 29-year-old Casey Harper Jr., a former employee at Notre Dame Federal Credit Union, was accused of secretly stealing thousands of dollars from customers at the bank.
Back in August, the bank began offering a CARE loan program after severe flooding caused damage to homes across Michiana. That loan would provide five thousand dollars to borrowers to help them recover from those floods, regardless of having bad credit, but flood victims weren’t the only ones targeted.
“I received a Facebook message from a friend of mine asking if I was interested in getting a loan. I was looking around to get a loan anyway,” said one of those victims who did not want to be identified.
According to the probable cause affidavit, sometime between October and December of 2016, an employee with the bank told police that Harper Jr. had been taking money from loan borrowers.
Harper allegedly told four people he knew that he could get them the loan…
“He had just explained they would get me a loan for so much,” said the victim.
But they would need to pay him a kickback fee of twelve hundred out of that 5 thousand dollar loan. That’s when those customers, and friends of his, began to question it and told the bank.
“Kinda thought that was a little weird,” said the victim.
During the investigation, police found there to be a total of four victims who were part of that kickback scheme.
“They said that I was one of the last but sure not the first so…” said the victim.
Harper Jr. is being charged with one count of fraud on a financial institution, a level five felony. He is being held at the Saint Joseph County Jail without bond.