Jury selection is expected to begin Wednesday morning in the federal trial of a La Habra woman who allegedly used her job at a credit union to secretly open bogus lines of credit for her online boyfriend, who is suspected of drawing down $1.1 million before the scam was discovered.
Indira Mohabir, 42, is charged in Los Angeles with 15 felony counts, including conspiracy, fraud and unauthorized issuance of credit union obligations. The status of the case against her alleged accomplice, Phillip Cook, 51, who lived out of state at the time, was not immediately known.
Mohabir, who worked as a business loan processor at Western Federal Credit Union in Hawthorne, met Cook in November 2014 through a hotline the credit union established for its business customers, according to a trial memorandum filed in Los Angeles federal court.
In exchange for opening about $3 million in credit lines and hiding them from her employer, Cook promised to take Mohabir on romantic getaways, and sent her a $50,000 check and flowers, court documents allege. Although Mohabir and Cook had not yet met in person during the time of the alleged scheme, from late 2014 to early 2015, the idea of marriage was floated in texts, according to the government.
If convicted, Mohabir would face up to five years in federal prison on the conspiracy count and up to 30 years for each of the substantive fraud charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.