Maurice and Marisa Spagnoletti
U.S. prosecutors have accused four men linked to a Puerto Rican drug operation with the murder of banker Maurice Spagnoletti, seven years after he was gunned down on a San Juan highway as he drove home from work.
The four men were among six indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges of drug trafficking, weapons violations and murder as part of a wider probe, according to an emailed statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Puerto Rico on Wednesday.
Spagnoletti, a 57-year-old from New Jersey, had moved to Puerto Rico to become the No. 2 executive at struggling Doral Bank a few months before he was murdered. The drive-by assassination, conducted at rush hour in the island’s capital, attracted national attention and confounded authorities.
Theories about Spagnoletti’s death abounded in San Juan banking circles during the years the case was unsolved. His widow, Marisa, sued Doral Bank in 2013, saying her husband was killed because he uncovered fraud at the bank and fired an executive he suspected of embezzlement. Doral’s lawyers called her claims ridiculous at the time and she withdrew the suit.
