Aranjo Crony Pleads Guilty

A close friend of former D. Edward Wells FCU President Carol Aranjo has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the looting of the once-prominent community development credit union.

Mary Spruell, one of more than a dozen friends Aranjo is charged with providing improper loans to, pleaded guilty in federal court to aiding and abetting the misapplication of credit union funds and filing a false tax return in receiving $109,000 from the defunct credit union.

Prosecutors said Spruell received the improper loans from Aranjo. Spruell was an officer of Friends of the CU, a non-profit group run by the credit union, through which as much as $2 million of credit union funds is believed to have been laundered. Spruell faces up to 30 years in prison when she is sentenced in November and is believed to be cooperating with federal prosecutors.

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