FBI, police 'in final stages' of solving 'contract hit' on ex-Philly bank CEO

"The FBI and the police are currently in the final stages" of their investigation into the 2011 murder of Maurice Spagnoletti, former CEO of the old Summit Bank of Pennsylvania, shot dead in his Lexus as he was driving home from his new job as executive VP of Puerto Rico's troubled Doral Bank, on De Diego highway in San Juan's wealthy Condado neighborhood, as I wrote here.

But can the authorities make a case? The FBI also announced a new $20,000 reward yesterday "for information that brings those responsible to justice," while Spagnoletti's widow Marisa offered $15,000 more and is trying to raise extra on GoFundMe.com -- because all the rewards together, she writes, are "not enough."

Spagnoletti, a "branch banking guru," was "hard, but fair," his old boss, veteran Philadelphia banker Jim Lynch, told me after his death. In her appeal, Marisa Spagnoletti described her late husband as a loving father to their daughter.

Puerto Rico media described Spagnoletti as an honest banker paid $400,000/year to help save the American island colony's leading home lender from financial collapse following the U.S. credit crisis and a steep recession that has since driven Puerto Rico's government into default.

Doral Bank was taken over by the Puerto Rico government in 2015 after what the bank and its investors called the government's refusal to pay Doral a $229 million court-ordered tax refund.

The bank was turned over to the FDIC, which sold its more valuable assets and has been liquidating the rest at a discount, part of which will ultimately be funded by solvent banks through the FDIC's deposit insurance system.