The cuffs might be coming soon for Leigh Bridges. So said the former President of the Jackson Area Federal Credit Union in a motion filed in federal court yesterday. The credit union fired Bridges earlier this year when it was discovered she allegedly embezzlement of up to $95 million. Investigators claimed Bridges and her husband Chad used the embezzled funds to purchase swanky homes, $10,000 handbags, expensive jewelry, and even a Steinway piano. So posh was their lifestyle their home appeared in Mississippi Magazine.
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| The $129,000 Steinway piano |
Leigh became President of the credit union in 2021 after serving as CFO. The President signed all financial statements and handled all account reconciliations for wire transfers. The Board terminated Bridges after it uncovered the alleged embezzlement. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan, III issued a temporary restraining order against the Bridges in May and froze all assets.
The complaint claims Leigh Bridges doctored the books while looting her employer. NCUAB alleged Leigh made bogus automated clearing house entries, wired large sums of money to her personal accounts as well as luxury retailers such as Tiffany's, and made fraudulent entries in the general ledger. The couple used their share accounts at the credit union to further the alleged fraud.
The parent credit union accused Leigh of making over $51 million in false entries in the couple's share accounts from 2015 to 2026. (Read the complaint as it spells out in great detail how the money was spent. Earlier post with copy of complaint and list of the loot.)
Judge Jordan issued a preliminary injunction freezing the Bridges assets in July. NCUAB is the trustee for the assets and is allowed to seize any asset it determines were purchased with stolen funds.
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Enter the Fibbies. While the credit union struggled mightily to get back what was allegedly stolen, the Justice Department is preparing to prosecute the Bridges.
Leigh Bridges filed a motion to stay the proceedings in the NCUAB's lawsuit yesterday. The motion and its supporting memorandum revealed the existence of a federal criminal investigation:
1. On May 14, 2026 a complaint was filed in this action and amended on June 15, 2026 asserting claims and causes of action arising out of defendant’s employment at the Jackson Area Federal Credit Union. 2. Thereafter, undersigned contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi and understood that a criminal prosecution had commenced.
3. Undersigned and Defendant Leigh Bridges met with the Assistant United States Attorneys handling the prosecution who informed charges them will be filed shortly.... Here, although not indicted as of today, a Bill of Information will be filed against Defendant Leigh Bridges under Title 18 §§ 657 and 1006, and Title 26 § 7206, which stems from the same alleged conduct at issue in this civil action and favors a stay of civil proceedings.
Thus it appears Leigh Bridges will plead guilty to something and avoid indictment.
Chad Bridges did not file a motion to stay but instead submitted an answer to the complaint. Chad argued in defense:
16. Defendant admits that he was generally aware of share accounts at JAFCU, that he was a “mere title holder” and that he did not exercise dominion or control over said share accounts. Defendant denies any involvement in or knowledge of the acts forming the basis of Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint.
Attorney Thomas McCraney, III represents Chad Bridges. Chad was the Director of Finance and Marketing at the Mississippi Insurance Department. Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney terminated his employment in May after the credit union lawsuits were filed.
Kingfish note: Bad news for the credit union as a criminal proceeding will stop all recovery until it concludes.
28 comments:
Seriously stay alway from credit unions! I have a feeling the money will never be recovered. Just use a bank
I totally understand how Chad could have overlooked his wife’s influx of unexplained tens of millions of dollars—we’ve all been there, right? But the original complaint noted “$13.8 million to Chad Bridges from May 2019 to May 2026. The money was used to fund several of the purchases…”. And now he “denies any involvement in or knowledge of the acts” involved? Gee, I don’t know about that.
Obviously there was no oversight going on at this credit union.
Seriously stay alway from credit unions!
Give it a rest. You've obviously a conflict you're not sharing.
2:28 was probably turned down by his credit union for a loan and this is his feeble way of retaliation. Credit unions and banks are both insured by the federal government for the same amount, $250,000.
If she is going to plead hopefully they are not letting her off with a minor sentence. She should end her days in prison.
I'll be happy to spray paint their cuffs gold for them
Seriously give it a rest, troll. Credit Unions are owned by the members, unlike a bank owned by big corporate interests.
What's the big deal. It's only "chump change" or "walking around money," right?
If he got turned down by a credit union there's no way he'd get whatever he was looking for from a bank.
For the folks on here saying stay away from credit unions:
Credit unions are not-for-profit, member-owned organizations that provide lower fees and better interest rates on loans and savings compared to banks, which are for-profit institutions owned by shareholders. Additionally, credit unions typically focus on personalized service and community involvement. So it’s quite the opposite. Stay away from banks.
Ok, someone has an ax to grind against credit unions so I'm not approving any more comments on the virtues or vices of banks and credit unions.
"16. Defendant admits that he was generally aware of share accounts at JAFCU, that he was a “mere title holder” and that he did not exercise dominion or control over said share accounts. Defendant denies any involvement in or knowledge of the acts forming the basis of Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint."
Bull F'ing Sh!t!!!!!!!!
I'm always amazed that the spouse of fraudsters "had no idea" even though the house, cars, jewelry, and trips clearly take more money than the salaries of the spouse and thief.
Hi, honey, look at this new Steinway I bought to go in one of our five houses.
White trash designation occurs at all wealth levels. Many people apparently do not realize this. And you can’t buy your way out of white trashiness.
I give you credit for taking a stand and we can bank on not seeing more comments.
Come on, she told hubby that the money came from "bonuses."
And I’m sure they are both wonderful pianists trained at Juilliard, right?
I hope she spends her life behind bars.
And it is laughable that he is pretending he knew nothing, but...crazier theories have worked for defendants before.
It's almost like he was in a magic cargo cult and millions of dollars kept failing on his head and he had no idea how that worked.
"Oh look, we bought another house. No worries about whether we cam afford that or anything else..."
If it’s a bill of information, then a plea is in the works
I hope they both get a long prison sentence. I sold some of my 401k (more than 250k) to buy a house at the beginning of the year, and it could have been swallowed up in this and I would of have been f'd.
What elixir did they get drunk on that made them think this would not eventually reveal itself?
Bernie Ebbers didn’t know anything either!
That's an unlikely scenario that I never would have thought of. Nightmare stuff. Not sure how a person could avoid this.
They were on the full dose of the hopium!
The husband's attorney, Tad McCraney is smart and a good attorney, but surely he has to know that no one will fall for the "I didn't know" defense he's making on behalf of the husband.
To make that argument, she would have had to have told her husband that she got a raise from her roughly 250k a year salary as CFO up to about 2 milliion as CEO in order for them to afford 5 houses, multiple luxury cars, hundreds of thousands in jewelry, millions in things from Chanel, Luis Vuitton, and Gucci, and a piano that cost 129k. Going from a salary of 250k to 2 million in one year is simply too big of an increase to believe.
Then, I assume, as husband and wife, they filed a joint tax return, but yet her W2 would have only shown 300k in salary/income, so she could have only claimed that on the tax return which he would know contradicted her telling him she made 2 million. And there is no way he didn't check his bank account balance in this entire 5 year period of time. At some point he had to have noticed "Oh, I have an extra 15 MILLION in my account. I wonder where that came from." I could go on and on, but there's no way the "I didn't know" defense will ever work or that any reasonable juror would ever believe that. Good try, Chad, but it ain't gonna work.
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