Credit Union Scam Artist Draws Record Prison Sentence in Mass.

The credit union industry's most infamous fugitive was sentenced to 24 years in prison without a chance of parole on Sept. 12 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Besides receiving the longest term ever given to a white-collar criminal in Massachusetts, Richard Mangone was ordered to pay $41 million in restitution to the National Credit Union Administration for his part in bringing down Barnstable Federal Credit Union.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Mangone masterminded a real estate scam that bankrupted $47 million-asset Barnstable Federal and hobbled Digital Employees' Federal Credit Union, both in Massachusetts.

Before he could be sentenced in February 1994, Mr. Mangone fled. He turned himself in on Aug. 29 in Bowling Green, Ky.

Because he is a demonstrated flight risk, Mr. Mangone probably will do time in a high-level security federal prison, said Steven Widerman, a staff attorney for the NCUA.

"Mr. Mangone is expected to do time, not at a country-club federal prison where he can sharpen his tennis game, but at a medium- or higher- level security prison where he will live within a real criminal population," he said.

Federal authorities believe that Mr. Mangone has "a substantial amount of credit union assets" hidden around the country, Mr. Widerman said. If any of that money is recovered, it will be turned over to the NCUA.

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