Police Seeking ‘Links’ to Fugitive

Rhode Island investigators are enlisting golfers in their manhunt for Joseph Mollicone Jr., the fugitive former president of Heritage Loan & Investment Co., whose alleged $13-million embezzlement helped precipitate the state’s ongoing banking crisis.

Mollicone, 48, a rabid golfer who played to a 10 handicap, disappeared along with the money last Nov. 7. The subsequent failure of Heritage led to the collapse of the private insurance fund that covered scores of small banks and credit unions in Rhode Island, leaving thousands of depositors still without access to their savings.

“We firmly believe that wherever Mollicone may be, he will be frequenting an area golf course,” state police Capt. Brian Andrews told Golf Digest magazine.

Andrews supplied the magazine with a photo of Mollicone and asked that golfers keep an eye out for him and call the state police or attorney general’s office if they spot him. Golf Digest carried the all-points bulletin in its current issue, under the headline “Crooked Stick.”