Police in Armed Standoff with CEO of Failed Credit Union

SOLON, Ohio — The CEO of Taupa Lithuanian CU, who is being investigated in this week's failure of the $24 million credit union, is refusing to surrender to police, prompting a standoff at his home here last night into this morning.

Police and federal agents have been outside the home of Alex Spirikaitis since before 8 p.m. and were attempting to communicate with the suspect by using a loudspeaker.

The road is closed to through traffic as SWAT forces and local police are assisting the FBI.

Spirikaitis, is wanted for embezzlement and was accused of making false entries in the failure of the Cleveland credit union, which was seized Monday by state regulators and NCUA.

Federal agents were trying to serve a warrant on Spirikaitis Tuesday night when he locked himself in his home. The warrant is for "false credit institution entries," which is similar to bank fraud.

Taupa Lithuanian was chartered in 1984 to serve the Lithuanian communites of Cleveland and northeast Ohio and has 1,154 members.

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