SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Federal prosecutors yesterday moved to limit the testimony of the attorney who represented former CDCU figurehead Carol Aranjo in her battles with NCUA during Aranjo’s trial for fraud in the collapse of once-prominent CDCU D. Edward Wells FCU.
Prosecutors are asking that Mary Ann Lane testify over a $2 million non-member deposit that Aranjo allegedly steered to the credit union’s community development loan fund, called Friends of the Credit Unions, or FOCUS. They want her to testify over a letter on her letterhead that cleared the use of the $2 million by FOCUS, even though the non-member depositor had specifically barred the use.
Lane represented Aranjo and D. Edward Wells in their multi-year fight with NCUA over access to the credit union’s books, culminating in a failed attempt by Lane and Aranjo to get an injunction against NCUA examiners.
The prosecutors want Lane to limit any testimony to the $2 million FOCUS loan and refrain from giving her version of the multi-year fight with NCUA.
Aranjo and her husband, Alphonso Smith, and their son, Douglas Smith, are charged in an 85-count indictment with looting the defunct CDCU. In a tragic twist to the case, Douglas Smith drowned last winter in a canoe accident on a local river.
Aranjo came to national prominence as chairman of the National Federation of CDCUs. She served as a spokesman for community development financial institutions in the 1990s.
NCUA took over and liquidated 44-year-old D. Edward Wells in 2003 at a loss of more than $2 million.
