Pinnocchio and the Green Eyed Monster

  A CESSPOOL OF LIES

Priority One Credit Union's President, Charles R. Wiggington, Sr., has spent the last two-years expending tremendous energy, time and credit union monies creating charades and ruses used in the termination of employees he believes are part of an underground network of rebel leaders and their confederates. For President Wiggington, gathering actual evidence needed to implicate employees in wrong doing is too laborious a process so with the help of Senior Vice President, Rodger Smock, and Board Chairperson, Diedra Harris-Brooks, the always malicious President prefers creating evidence and disparaging rumors that taint an employee's reputation. The President seems adhere to the adage that rules are made to be broken. 

The following, rather complicated account, involves two employees, one an employee of Priority One and the other, an employee of Associated Management Company (Associated Management), the former collection agency who the credit union contracted for several years until the President's recent termination of their services. 

The incident, which we describe below, occurred in 2008 and was brought to our attention by employees of the credit union and of Associated Management Company. The account describes a plot, forged by President Wiggington, in which he tried to implicate three employees of wrong doing. His accusations were unsubstantiated by evidence- tangible or circumstantial. 

  

At the start of 2008, President Wiggington began complaining that Associated Management was not recuperating sufficient monies from their collection efforts to justify the monthly charges for their services. He also revealed that he believed the agency was not turning over all monies collected from delinquent accounts. He explained that he had decided to create an in-house collection department. By doing so, he would eliminate the money spent on the services of an outside contractor and surmised that in-house collectors would be more motivated to collect delinquent monies than would be an outside agency. 

In June 2008, he asked AVP of Lending, Patricia Loiacano, to meet with Mike Lee, the owner of Associated Management, and hand him a letter that Rodger Smock composed and the President signed, informing him that Priority One would not be renewing its agreement with the agency. 

SCRUTINIZING ASSOCIATED MANAGEMENT

The President would later add that he had learned that Associated Management did not perform in depth background checks of its employees. He pointed out that the agency did not finger print newly hired staff. We can't explain  why President Wiggington suddenly became concerned with the credit union's security and why he began questioning the integrity of the collection agent. 

While Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. served as Vice President of Operations, he with the help of Mike Lee, the owner of Associated Management, committed collusion when the two repossessed an automobile from a member who had signed a repayment agreement so that he could become current with his automobile loan payments. 

At the time, member Danny Wafa, became delinquent with his automobile loan payments due to illness in his family. The illness forced him to frequently travel out of state to care for this relative. At the time, the supervisor of the collections department visited Mr. Wafa at his home to draw up a repayment plan that would help Mr. Wafa become current with loan payments and avoid having his automobile from being repossessed. The member signed the tentative agreement and his supervisor returned to the South Pasadena branch to obtain the approval of his supervisor, Mike Lee. 

While reviewing the agreement, Mr. Lee noticed that Mr. Wafa's car was a BMW- Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. vehicle of choice. Mr. Lee visited Mr. Wiggington in his office, informed him about the repayment agreement and because the car was a BMW, asked if he wanted the agreement approved or if he would prefer having the vehicle repossessed. Mr. Wiggington ordered that the agreement not be approved and the vehicle confiscated. 

Both Mr. Lee and Mr. Wiggington drew up documents to create the appearance that the automobile had been sent to auction to be sold. But the vehicle was never physically sent to auction. The automobile was picked up and delivered to Mr. Wiggington and ownership transferred to his name. The proof that the vehicle was never sent to auction lies in the fact that when a vehicle is repossessed and afterwards, sold, any money obtained from the sale is applied to the outstanding (unpaid) balance. In the case of Mr. Wafa's unpaid loan balance remained unchanged and there is no record of money being applied to the unpaid amount after the date the automobile was repossessed. 

Another incident that Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. was aware of is that Mr. Lee repossessed a pick-up truck from one of the credit union's members and afterwards, transferred ownership to his daughter. His daughter's loan file containing records of the repossessed truck remain in South Pasadena.  

In 2008, Mr. Lee repossessed a beautiful Mercedes Benz and afterwards, offered the automobile to Clayton, one of his employees, before sending the vehicle off to auction. 

Two days later, Arial, an employee in the IT Department learned about the repossessed vehicle and informed Frank, a partner of Mr. Lee, that he would like to purchase the Mercedez Benz, but would have to first the automobile which was being stored at an impound yard. Frank informed Arial that the impound yard doesn't allow inspections. Arial continued to insist he must inspect the automobile before he could agree to buy it. 

In the meantime, Mr. Lee sold the vehicle for $5000 to one of Clayton's friends. When Arial discovered the automobile had been sold he became incensed and lodged a complaint with Frank. An agitated Mr. Lee immediately contacted Clayton and angrily told him he would never offer another employee of his company the opportunity to purchase a repossessed automobile. 

  

Mr. Lee's uncontrolled emotional reaction which tried to blame Clayton was an absurd and irrational reaction to the blunder he alone committed when he chose to offer the vehicle to one of his staff. This was actually an honest transaction unlike the repossession of Mr. Wafa's automobile or repossession of the truck whose ownership he transferred to his daughter. 

Clayton reminded Mr. Lee that it was he, who offered the Mercedes Benz which was scheduled to be sent to auction. What's more, Mr. Lee sold the vehicle to Clayton's friend. In the meantime, Ariel visited President Wiggington in his office and complained that he had been duped out of purchasing the automobile. The hypocritical President who years earlier took possession of Mr. Wafa's car, became incensed and took Arial's side. 

President Wiggington called Frank and concocted a story, accusing the loan collector of funding fraudulent loans. The President's story was absurd and completely untrue because Clayton had no experience or rights to fund loans and was unfamiliar of the procedures to do so. But President Wiggington's story was about to become even more preposterous.  He told Frank that Clayton seemed, in his opinion, to live far above his means. 

It's nothing less than amazing, that Charles R. Wiggington, Sr., the man who told the Board he had no idea his hand-picked AVP, Liz Campos, had been kiting and who was found guilty of sexual harassment and who took possession of a member's automobile while defrauding the credit union of money that would have been obtained from the sale of the car, was now accusing others of stealing?  And how did the President know that Clayton lived above his means when he had no personal access to Clayton's payroll records? Clayton after all, was not an employee of the credit union. 

The President's story became even more outlandish as he told Frank that Clayton was being aided by the Assistant Branch Manager in Los Angeles and former Real Estate Loan Officer once assigned to South Pasadena and also the same woman the President sexually harassed for a number of years. 

The President also dragged Anwar, a temporary employment of the credit union assigned to the Van Nuys branch, into his absurd story and accused Anwar of aiding Clayton and the former Real Estate Loan Officer. 

The President concocted an amazing story; a fantastical conspiracy in which he targeted employees he was jealous of. It was no secret that he was jealous of Clayton and Anwar because of the attention they drew from women. It was also logistically impossible for the three employees to physically perpetrate loan fraud. Clayton was assigned to the collections department located in South Pasadena. The Real Estate Loan Officer had been working out of the Los Angeles branch on the corner of Central and Florence Avenues in South Centrol Los Angeles while Anwar was assigned to the Van Nuys branch. 

 

The five bad loans funded by the Van Nuys branch had all been reviewed and approved by Assistant Branch Manager, Neelam Verma. After approving these, she ordered Anwar to fund them, however, Anwar had absolutely nothing to do with approving them. 

The President's story was nothing more than another of his emotionally-driven ruses designed to slander employee reputations but his plot failed and attests to what an incompetent conniver he really is. 

After leveling his accusations against Clayton, the Real Estate Loan Officer, and Anwar, Frank called Mike Lee. The owner of Associated Management never demanded evidence needed to solidify the President's wild accusations and instead, called Clayton and informed him that he was suspected of conspiring to process fraudulent loans. Clayton not only denied having been involved in any such activity but he told Mr. Lee that it was impossible for him to do so since he did not possess the knowledge needed to fund loans nor did he have the security clearance to do so. 

We also believe that the President targeted the former Real Estate Loan Officer because she never responded to his sexualized commentaries made to her while she was assigned to the South Pasadena branch. 

A few weeks later, the President terminated Anwar for funding 5 bad loans when he should have instead terminated the Van Nuys Assistant Branch Manager, Neelam Varma. 

A few months later, he terminated the former Real Estate Loan Officer, allegedly for writing a bad check. In 2007, he was incensed because his hand-picked AVP, Liz Campos, was terminating for kiting and sustaining more than 24 NSF incidents on her Priority One checking account but he somehow felt justified to terminate the former Loan Officer for a single bounced check. 

 

President Wiggington is a man whose moral compass lies shattered on the floor. His proclivities are character assassination and harassment. As business declines, his focus is concocting scathing plots that victimize people who in his mind, jar his twisted sensibilities. Underneath his cracked veneer is a confused little boy who is quite incapable of discerning right from wrong and who lacks the self-discipline to bring his behaviors and verbalizations into check. 

"It is better to encounter a mother bear whose cubs have been taken than keep company with a fool."

King Solomon

Where's the Evidence?

CRIMINAL PROCLIVITIES

Since January of this year, Priority One Credit Union’s President, Charles R.  Wiggington, Jr. and Board Directors, Thomas Gathers and O. Glen Saffold, have leveled accusations against this blog, including, ”It’s nothing but a bunch of lies”, “Its nothing but a bunch of jealous employees”, and “They've got nothing better to do.” We wish we could be that petty, but we’re not.

What the three officers maybe insinuating is that in their opinions, there is no evidence to prove that our assertions are true. Of course, the overly verbose President may have recently and inadvertently, admitted to the veracity of what we report when he said, “I’m going to find out who’s leaking information to the blog” and “I know they've put bugs [electronic surveillance equipment] in my office.”  If the President wants to stop the leak, he need only desist from divulging the confidential information that is making its way to the Internet.

At Priority One, evidence of wrong doing is always deemed highly disruptive to the President and Board’s agendas. Both the President and the Directors seem to spend more time forging plots than trying to develop strategies to that reap new business and generate real profit.

Evidence to the President’s failures or as we witnessed in 2008, evidence he sexually harassed a former employee will not be tolerated and will always be squashed. At least, that is what Board Chair Diedra Harris-Brooks did when a detective provided evidence proving President Wiggington sexually harassed a former employee.  Here are other incidents involving President Wiggington, that have been unsuccessfully covered up by the President and Mrs. Harris-Brooks.

Justice Auto Sales

In 1999, President Wiggington introduced his close friend, Henry Justice, the owner of Justice Auto Sales to Priority One. Mr. Justice soon became an automobile broker of the credit union. In 2002, the credit union sent Mr. Justice a check approximately $80,000 for vehicles purchased from his dealership by 4 of the credit union’s members.

Mr. Justice was to surrender the titles for each automobile so that Priority One could add its name as lienholder on each pink slip until the vehicle loans were fully satisfied. Mr. Justice refused to surrender the titles, alleging his daughter had made off with the monies paid to his dealership.

When the credit union filed a lawsuit, Mr. Justice filed for bankruptcy protection which was eventually granted and Mr. Justice escaped having to  repay the monies paid to him by the credit union.

Recently, Mr. Justice and his son visited the South Pasadena branch and was happily met at the reception desk by the President. The three proceeded to the Board Room where they remained for about an hour. After leaving the room, the three left the branch to go and have lunch at a local South Pasadena restaurant.

A few days later, the President announced that he was reinstating a business relationship between the credit union and the dealership which was now owned by Mr. Justice’s son.

Evidently, President Wiggington  was unconcerned by the fact that Mr. Justice made-off with approximately $80,000 which he never paid back.

The President also didn’t care about the tremendous inconvenience 4 members were subjected to when Mr. Justice refused to surrender the pink slips.

And Mr. Wiggington didn’t care that 3 different DMV Specialists were forced to visit the DMV office in Lincoln Park on a monthly basis for over a 2 year period to pick-up temporary registration cards for  4 members.

President’s intended reinstatement of Mr. Justice crumbled after we reported what he intended to do. Not only did he bring an immediate end to his plans to reinstate Mr. Justice but he instructed Mr. Justice to deny that they had ever planned to resurrect a working relationship.

Danny Wafa, Member (Victim)

In the early 2000’s member,  Danny Wafa’s loan payment became delinquent due to illness in his family. At the time, the Supervisor of Credit Resolutions visited Mr. Wafa at his home during he structured a repayment agreement.

The supervisor returned to South Pasadena and presented the repayment agreement ot his supervisor and owner of the credit union’s contracted collection agency. When the  owner realized the vehicle was a BMW, he immediately visited Mr. Wiggington in his office. Mr. Wiggington ordered that the repayment agreement not be approved and ordered the car repossessed.

The President and the owner of Credit Resolutions drew up phony papers to make it appear the car was sent to auction. The evidence that the car was never sent to auction is found in the fact that when a car is sold at auction, any monies recuperated from the sale, are applied to the outstanding balance. In 2009, the member’s online loan file shows that no payments were ever applied after the vehicle was repossessed and proving the car was never sold. DMV records also show that Mr. Wiggington became the owner of the vehicle immediately after Mr. Wafa.

The President would later state that he purchased the vehicle from a dealership but that is an utter lie as attested to by the DMV. What’s more the member’s file has disappeared from the main branch and was not located on microfiche or at the collection’s agencies headquarters in Glendora, California.   

Here is additional information about the former member’s automobile

Year/Make: 1989 BMW

VIN: WBAGC4310K3317406

Last 2 Owners: Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. and Danny Wafa

License Plate # at time of Repossession: 4NRM325

Incense Platte # after Repossession” WINKS589

"WINKS" is also referenced on the license plates found on some of the President’s other BMW’s.

We recently spoke to Mr. Wafa and he describes the repossession as one of the worst things to ever affect his life. So where is Mr. Wafa’s file?

Patrice Polley, Member

In the early 2000’s, President Wiggington was enraptured by a beautiful member named Patrice. He first met her when she visited the South Pasadena branch to try and obtain a $27,000 automobile loan but unfortunately, did not qualify because her FICO score was 520. Though she did not satisfy the credit union’s eligibility requirements, Mr. Wiggington offered to meet her at Fat Burgers in Los Angeles to discuss her request. On the day of their meeting, Mr. Wiggington was accompanied by his uncle. He would later say, “When Patrice entered the place, every eye turned to look at her but she came to us.”

 The President approved Ms. Polley’s request so that she could purchase a used Mercedes from a Beverly Hills dealership.

Like Mr. Wafa’s loan file, Ms. Polley’s file has also disappeared. How is it possible that the records for these two important transactions have disappeared entirely from the credit union’s files?

Employee (Victim)

Former Real Estate Loan Officer

In 2008, the Assistant Branch Manager of the Los Angeles branch sent a letter to credit union attorney, William Adler, informing him that she had been sexually harassed for a number of years by Charles R. Wiggington, Sr.  The President was placed on an approximate 6-week paid suspension during which an investigation was conducted to determine if he had indeed violated federal law. At the end of the investigation, evidence was presented to the Board proving that Mr. Wiggington had sexually harassed the employee, however, Board Chair, Diedra Harris-Brooks squashed the evidence and with the assistance of Directors, O. Glen Saffold and Thomas Gathers and Supervisory Chair, Cornelia Simmons, voted for his reinstatement.

The Director of Marketing

On January 1, 2007, the date Charles R. Wiggington began his appointment as President, he launched a scathing campaign against the Director of Marketing. As part of his attack, he placed the Director under authority of AVP, Aaron Cavazos, knowing that for years, Mr. Cavazos had expressed his disdain for the Director.

Next, he had the Director’s desk moved to the dusty file room located in the South Pasadena branch’s back officers. However, staff at the branch rose up and complained and three days later, he moved the Director to a desk located in the executive wing but he gave her former office to Mr. Cavazos.

A few days later, the President had the Director demoted to Coordinator of Human Resources.  

A few days later, AVP and Director of Human Resources, Rodger Smock, informed the former Director that her salary would be reduced commensurate with what is usually paid to a coordinator.

Director, Janice Irving interceded and prohibited the President from reducing the former Marketing Director’s salary.

A week later, then Human Resources “clerk”, Esmeralda Sandoval informed the former Director of marketing that she was being stripped of her exempt status and would from here on, have to clock-in like all other non-exempt personnel.

A few weeks later, the President ordered that the former Director be laid-off, stating that she did not fit his “vision” for the credit union. So was ruination of the credit union part of his vision?

An Unattended Child (Victim)

In 2008, a member visited the credit union and left a baby locked in her car which was parked in the parking structure located under the South Pasadena branch.

Members entering the branch heard the baby crying and immediately reported to the staff in the Loan Department. The staff informed the member that the baby was crying but the member who was sitting in the member services department involved in a person conversation with an FSR, merely replied, “I’ll be down shortly.”

Because both the President and Mr. Smock were not in the office, the VISA Card Specialist informed Robert West, the Training and Education Manager, about the incident including the member’s refusal to go to the car to pick-up the baby. Mr. West told her, “Call the police.” Both police and firemen quickly descended on the branch and retrieved the crying baby form the locked car and arrested the member.

The following day, the President was informed about the incident. He went into an uncontrollable tirade, yelling and demanding that every employee involved in calling the police be brought to his office individually.

Each employee was informed that they would be terminated should they choose to call the police should another such incident occur. He also told each employee, “Poor member, you have no idea what you’ve done to her” and said that the police should only be called if a baby is left in a locked car that is NOT parked on credit union property.

President Wiggington’s childish and irrational temper tantrum was inexcusable and his directives threatening termination should the police ever be called again was just plain stupid. The President is immensely ignorant of the fact the law requires that police must be called whenever a baby is left unattended in a locked car.

The President’s proclivities for dishonesty and his erratic and disruptive behaviors should be a point of concern but unfortunately, Priority One’s Board of Directors is made up of amoral, apathetic and corrupt Directors who are just deplorable as the person they appointed President of what was once a respected and thriving credit union. 

Stealing from Members

"Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal."

President Nixon to David Frost, May 19, 1977

On January 6, 1999, member, Danny Wafa obtained financing from Priority One Credit Union for a newly purchased, white-colored, 1989 BMW. A few months later, a member of his family became ill forcing Mr. Wafa to frequently leave the state, causing his loan payments to become delinquent. 

At the time, Credit Resolutions Supervisor, William Brinkley, visited Mr. Wafa at his home and structured a repayment plan that would enable the member to become current with his payments and avoid repossession which would have adversely impacted the member's credit history. Mr. Brinkley also understood that repossessing any automobile constitutes a monetary loss to any credit union. 

After the member signed the agreement, Mr. Brinkley returned to the South Pasadena branch and presented the document to his supervisor and owner of Allied Management, Priority One's contracted collection agency. Upon realizing that the vehicle was a BMW, the same make of automobile owned by the Vice President of Operations, Charles R. Wiggington, Sr., Mr. Lee visited the Vice President in his office. Vice President Wiggington denied approval of the repayment agreement and ordered the vehicle be repossessed and brought to him. 

Mr. Lee drew up new documents ordering repossession of the vehicle. After the vehicle was retrieved, Mr. Lee drew up fictitious documents to create the appearance that the automobile had been sent to auction when in fact, ownership of the vehicle was transferred, at no cost, to Vice President Wiggington.   The Vice President and Mr. Lee committed collusion and fraud. 

The file containing the original documents signed by Mr. Wafa and the documents ordering the repossession should have been sent to the file room located at in the back offices at the South Pasadena branch. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the file is nowhere to be found at the South Pasadena office. What's more, the file is also not found at Allied Management's Glendora, California offices. Vice President Wiggington retained ownership of the automobile for only a short-time before selling it to his then friend, Odell Richards. 

This incident is far more than simply an abuse of authority by both the Vice President and Mr. Lee. Evidently, neither considered the member's circumstances, choosing instead to take ownership of the automobile through fraud and in the process, causing the member to incur a negative reference on his credit report. Mr. Wafa's loan record continues to appear in Priority One's XP program which discloses the loan was written off. 

When a vehicle is repossessed and afterwards, sold at auction, any monies obtained from the sale are applied to the loan's outstanding balance. In this case, the unpaid balance remains unchanged revealing the vehicle was never sold.

In the years which followed, Mr. Wiggington would periodically boast about the beautiful white BMW he allegedly purchased from a dealership, bragging that the wheel covers alone, "are worth more than $2000.00."

In 2008, the credit union's attorney received an anonymous letter which included the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), license plate number, and description of the automobile along with a description of how then VP of Operations, Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. came into possession of the automobile. Mr. Adler contacted the Board of Supervisors and conferred with Board Chair, Diedra Harris-Brooks. Mrs. Harris-Brooks contacted Mr. Wiggington, Sr., who was now President and CEO, and informed him about the contents of the letter. 

Stunned by the disclosure,  the President assured Mrs. Harris-Brooks that the automobile had been obtained legally. However, immediately following conclusion of the call, the President called Mr. Lee and the two, concocted a story they would tell anyone who might investigate the incident.

In September 2008, the President stood in the Board room located at the South Pasadena branch, loudly informing an auditor that he had purchased the automobile at a "BMW dealership." Of course, if the vehicle had been purchased at a BMW dealership, then why would the member's loan record in XP show that the vehicle had once been financed by member, Danny Wafa, and later repossessed? Why would Mr. Wiggington feel impelled to contact Mr. Lee and concoct a story to explain how he came into possession of Mr. Wafa's automobile when all he would have to do, is show evidence of the purchase?