Notorious Scam Artist Surrenders, Ending an 18-Month Manhunt

Federal agents arrested the credit union industry's most infamous fugitive on Aug. 29 at a church in Bowling Green, Ky.

Richard Mangone became the object of an 18-month federal manhunt and was placed on the U.S. Marshals' Most Wanted list after he vanished five days before his sentencing in February 1994. His fraud scheme brought down one institution and hobbled another.

He turned himself in.

Mr. Mangone helped found Barnstable Federal Credit Union, and during the late 1980s and early 1990s masterminded a real estate scam that drained more than $45 million from the $70 million-asset group, bankrupting it.

Simultaneously, Mr. Mangone was president of Digital Employees' Federal Credit Union, which lost $18.5 million in the Barnstable scheme. The Maynard, Mass., institution, which has $355 million in assets, now is healthy.

The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund liquidated Barnstable in 1991 at a cost of $40 million, the second-largest payout in the fund's history.

"We rank him up there with Jesse James," said Steven Widerman, trial attorney for the National Credit Union Administration.

Mr. Mangone and four cohorts were convicted of the loan scheme in July 1993. He escaped before he could be sentenced, and there were several sightings of him before the Feds caught up with him.

Mr. Mangone should be returned to Massachusetts by the end of this week and sentenced possibly later this month, Mr. Widerman said. Before his flight, Mr. Mangone was facing about 17 years in prison.

In a strange end to a four-year-old sordid tale, Mr. Mangone turned himself in by asking a Catholic priest to report him to the authorities, Mr. Widerman said.

"If Mr. Mangone surrendered because he found religion, it is unfortunate he didn't find it before or during the fraudulent loan scheme, or at least before he enjoyed life on the lam, financed by the credit union," Mr. Widerman said.

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