(KAIR)--A plea agreement reached in a case of embezzlement involving an Atchison credit bureau and its long time manager has led to a guilty plea.

According to court documents dated February 4 of this year, Rita Hartman, employed by the Muddy River Credit Union for 4 decades, 30-years of which were spent as manager, entered a guilty plea to making false entries in federal credit institution records. As part of the plea agreement, the other numerous counts faced by Hartman are dropped, with the document saying that she could, depending on sentencing, face no more than 30-years of incarceration, a $1 million fine, 5 years of supervised release, restitution, and a $100 mandatory special assessment.

The first time Hartman, the document says, "made a false payment on a family member's loan or deposited cash into a family member's account when no actual funds supported the transaction was approximately fifteen years ago."

Hartman, according to the documents, would conceal her crimes by reporting "a significantly larger cash on hand balance on the general ledger than the cash on hand reported on call reports," as well as by inflating on call reports and the general ledger the amount of Security Repurchase Agreements MRCU had at EBT." Hartman, the documents say, "was able to hide the increasingly large cash on hand balance listed in the general ledger by offsetting the amount embezzled through non-existent SRA assets."

The Muddy River Credit Union served the employees of the Bradken foundry located in Atchison.

Hartman, well known for years of Atchison civic involvement, including years served as the City's Mayor, was indicted by a federal grand jury on August 23, 2023.

The FBI investigated.