Thrift Bribery Indictment: A banker was charged...

Thrift Bribery Indictment: A banker was charged with taking $2.5 million in bribes to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in loans in what prosecutors called the largest thrift fraud in New Jersey. The banker, William J. Spagnoli, was the senior vice president of Somerset-based City Federal Savings Bank, one of the nation’s largest savings and loans before it was taken over by federal regulators in December, 1989. Spagnoli is charged with taking kickbacks to approve more than $338 million in residential development loans. Four developers named in the indictment pleaded guilty to paying Spagnoli the bribes.