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.
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Synovus Financial demonstrated at an industry conference how it is using Microsoft's Copilot to help its staff address customers' concerns.
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The U.S. arm of Spanish banking giant Santander has hired Swati Bhatia to oversee retail banking and its digital transformation efforts. Bhatia joins at "an inflection point" for the company, which aims to be "a digital bank with branches," CEO Tim Wennes said.
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Mariya Rosberg is named Americas head of banking and financial services at Marsh McLennan's Oliver Wyman unit; startup ZayZoon raised $15 million in a new funding round; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
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Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.
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Once a prominent figure spurring financial institutions to engage in cryptocurrency, Bankman-Fried's downslide began with the collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in late 2022 and hit rock bottom with his sentencing to 25 years in prison.
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But the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is still near 7%, and that remains the overhang on the housing market, Freddie Mac said.
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