SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The jury in the embezzlement trial of former community development credit union activist Carol Aranjo continued deliberations into a third day Wednesday night.
Aranjo and her family are charged with looting the once-prominent CDCU, D. Edward Wells FCU, which was shuttered by NCUA in 2003. In a case built by NCUA, federal prosecutors claim more than $2 million that Aranjo lent to family and cronies was missing from the one-time $7 million credit union when it was shut down. Defense lawyers claim the money wasn’t stolen but mismanaged.
Charged along with Aranjo are her husband, Alphonso Smith, and their son, Douglas Smith, both of whom were alleged to have received improper loans form the credit union. The case took a tragic turn last November when Douglas Smith drowned in a boating accident on the Chicopee River.
Aranjo, 67, came to national prominence as a spokeswoman for community development financial institutions while she was chairman of the National Federation of CDCUs. She testified before Congress several times in the late 1990s.
