Head of Defunct Ramona Savings Will Be Freed

John L. Molinaro, the former head of the defunct Ramona Savings & Loan in Orange who has been jailed for nearly 2 years, has been deemed eligible for parole and could be released from prison this week.

Molinaro, 48, is being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on charges including bank fraud and conspiracy in connection with the collapse of Ramona, which was taken over by regulators in September, 1986.

The criminal trial based on those charges is scheduled to begin May 16.

Last June, U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon ordered Molinaro be held without bail after prosecutors argued he might flee the country.

Molinaro was convicted in 1987 of passport fraud after he tried to leave the United States by applying for a passport under the name of a Santa Clara man who had been dead for 30 years. Incarcerated since July 22, 1987, Molinaro has completed his sentence for passport fraud, but has remained in custody because of Kenyon’s ruling.

At the time of his application for a passport, Molinaro was carrying $400,000 in cash and jewelry along with a loaded gun. Federal prosecutors have alleged that Molinaro stashed $3 million in a bank in the Cayman Islands and that he was trying to get out of the country in order to retrieve that money.

But last week, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned Kenyon’s refusal to set bail. On Friday, Kenyon complied with the higher court’s decision and ordered Molinaro set free if he posted a $250,000 bond and agreed to surrender all passports. Molinaro is also restricted from traveling outside of Southern California and must spend at least 30 days at a halfway house.

Gerald V. Scotti, Molinaro’s attorney, said he expects his client to be released by Friday.