Aranjo Crony Pleads Guilty In D. EdwardWells Case

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - (07/13/06) – A close friend of former D.Edward Wells FCU President Carol Aranjo pleaded guilty Wednesday toaiding and abetting the looting of the once-prominent communitydevelopment credit union. Mary Spruell, one of more than a dozenfriends Aranjo is charged with providing improper loans to, pleadedguilty in federal court to aiding and abetting the misapplicationof credit union funds and filing a false tax return in receiving$109,000 from the defunct credit union. Prosecutors said Spruellreceived the improper loans from Aranjo, who pleaded innocentFriday to charges of embezzlement in the 2003 failure of the48-year-old credit union. Spruell was an officer of Friends of theCU, a non-profit group run by the credit union, through which asmuch as $2 million of credit union funds is believed to have beenlaundered. Spruell faces up to 30 years in prison when she issentenced in November and is believed to be cooperating withfederal prosecutors.