Kathryn Sue Simmerman, the former manager of the $16.3 millionShoreline Federal Credit Union, admitted in U.S. District Court inGrand Rapids, Mich. Wednesday that she stole nearly $2 million over13 years by taking cash from the vault and concealing it in her purse.

In a plea deal, Simmerman agreed to plead guilty to embezzlement and structuring transactions to evade reportingrequirements.

Although the former manager of the Norton Shores, Mich.-basedcooperative faces up to 30 years in prison, Simmerman is expectedto receive a reduced sentence if she complies with all conditionsin the plea deal filed in federal court Wednesday.

Starting on Oct. 1, 2001, she began taking cash from the creditunion’s vault and then deposited some of the funds in Shoreline FCUaccounts that she controlled. She spent the rest of the stolenmoney.

To avoid triggering a currency transaction report, she made cashdeposits that were less than $10,000, according to court documents.For example, in October 2014 Simmerman made seven cash deposits indifferent amounts that ranged from $100 to $7,000.

Her embezzlement scheme continued through Feb. 3, 2015.

For more than 13 years, Simmerman managed to hide her theft fromauditors and the credit union’s supervisory committee bymanipulating Shoreline FCU’s financial statements to make it looklike the missing cash was on deposit with Shoreline’s correspondentbank, according to court documents.

She was hired in 1987 and named the credit union’s manager in2006; she was later fired on Feb. 27, 2015.

Court documents do not explain how Simmerman’s embezzlement wasfinally uncovered.

“Shoreline Federal Credit Union cannot comment on theallegations in the plea agreement due to the fact that the criminalmatter is still in process,” Stephanie L. Kuziak, the currentmanager of Shoreline FCU, said in a prepared statement. “Shorelinedid report a net operating loss in the first quarter. We fullyexpect to recover from it.”

At the end of Q1 2015, the credit union posted a net loss of$1,951,614. That net loss increased to $2,008,844 at the end of Q22015, according to NCUA financial performance reports.

In addition, Shoreline FCU’s net worth plummeted from 11.84% inJune 2014 to 1.52% in June of this year, according to NCUAfinancial performance reports. Its ROA was -23.41%, as of the endof June.