Federal prosecutors have charged Robert V. Cappelletti Jr., the longtime executive director of the Meriden Housing Authority and former executive director of the Groton Housing Authority, with obtaining an unauthorized $16.2 million loan and diverting a portion of the proceeds while using his dual roles to move public housing funds. A federal grand jury in New Haven returned a nine count indictment on September 22, 2026.
Cappelletti, 60, of Middlebury, was arrested two days later, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $500,000 bond pending trial. The criminal case is distinct from a separate civil lawsuit filed in Connecticut Superior Court by Old Greenwich firm Xanadu Capital. That suit, dated August 28, accuses Cappelletti and eight other defendants of mismanaging a $2.4 million loan. The federal charges rest on an indictment investigated by the FBI and the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General. The civil claims are allegations made by a private lender in state court. Cappelletti has not been convicted of any charge. Prosecutors allege the scheme began in 2022.
Cappelletti served as Meriden Housing Authority executive director from roughly 2009 until May 2025 and sat on the board of Maynard Road Corp., a nonprofit formed to support the authority’s development and redevelopment work. From about 2016 until his suspension in January 2025 he also ran the Groton Housing Authority under a shared services agreement with Meriden. Those positions gave him control over agency bank accounts, the ability to sign documents in the authorities’ names, and influence over affiliated nonprofits including Greater Groton Realty Corp.
According to the indictment, Cappelletti borrowed $16.2 million from a victim lender, a limited liability company registered in Delaware and doing business in New York, purportedly on behalf of Maynard Road Corp. He executed a promissory note for the nonprofit and a guarantee for the Meriden Housing Authority without board authorization from either entity. He supplied the lender with fraudulent resolutions that falsely claimed both boards had approved the transaction.
In July 2022 the lender wired $13,961,750, the net proceeds after costs and fees, into a Maynard Road bank account. Prosecutors say Cappelletti then directed a series of transactions designed to enrich himself and conceal the conduct. Roughly $450,000 went into his personal investment account. Another $374,752.87 paid down the mortgage on his residence.
Additional sums covered personal expenses. Although neither the Groton Housing Authority nor Greater Groton Realty Corp. was a borrower or guarantor, he allegedly used his authority as Groton’s executive director to route housing authority funds toward payments on the Meriden related debt. He told Groton officials the transfers related to a forthcoming bond for a local development project and would be reimbursed, and he submitted forged invoices to justify the payments.
Reporting on parallel state litigation identifies the lender as Titan Capital and describes the same $16.2 million principal and roughly $13.9 million deposit that appeared in a Maynard Road account. The indictment charges five counts of wire fraud, each carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison, and four counts of illegal monetary transactions, each carrying a maximum of 10 years. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel J.
Gentile and Raymond Miller are prosecuting the case, which U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan announced. No trial date has been set.
Cappelletti’s not guilty plea means the allegations remain unproven. The Xanadu Capital lawsuit concerns a different transaction and different parties. In June 2023 the Groton Housing Authority purportedly authorized a $750 million multifamily housing bond tied to a project known as 2030 Groton Redevelopment. That summer, according to the complaint, Cappelletti and Christopher Regan of Stonington sought $2.4 million from Xanadu to cover bond issuance expenses.
The suit claims they represented that $1.5 million would stay in an account of Northeast Redevelopment Services to finish the project. Northeast Redevelopment Services is described in the complaint as an entity Cappelletti established. Other defendants include former Groton property manager and bookkeeper Jamie Lee, who resigned in January 2025; Cappelletti’s brother David Cappelletti of Middlebury and his firm Clermont & Associates; and several related companies plus the Groton Housing Authority and Greater Groton Realty Corp. Xanadu alleges the proceeds were not used as promised.
The complaint accuses the defendants of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment, and related claims across 14 counts. It specifically asserts that about $1 million reached David Cappelletti without contracts that would justify transfers exceeding $1.5 million. Xanadu seeks damages, fees, and punitive relief. David Cappelletti’s side has indicated it will defend the case.
These are civil allegations only. They are not part of the federal indictment. Warning signs accumulated well before the criminal charges. In early 2025 Groton officials discovered financial irregularities, suspended Cappelletti, placed the property manager on leave, ended the shared services agreement, hired a forensic accountant, and replaced counsel.
The Groton Housing Authority sued him and others, alleging misappropriation of cash, credit, and assets and describing the pattern, in court papers, as a massive Ponzi like scheme. Groton lawyers have also referenced roughly $3 million taken from agency accounts and payments directed toward Meriden creditors. The FBI opened an inquiry into the Groton finances during that period, according to local reporting and authority records. Meriden and Maynard Road Corp. sued Cappelletti in September 2025.
They allege he told the board that the sudden $13.9 million deposit was federal historic tax credit revenue from a Bristol project rather than loan proceeds, then directed millions to a closing attorney without disclosing the debt. Meeting minutes contained no authorization vote. Board members said they first saw the purported resolution in March 2025. Court filings in the related Titan Capital collection case state that Cappelletti fabricated the Meriden resolution by cutting and pasting a signature page.
A Superior Court judge entered an approximately $18.7 million judgment against the authority and nonprofit in May 2025 after default on the loan; a later ruling reopened the judgment after interim director Hayley Fetrow submitted evidence of the alleged forgery. Audits for the Meriden authority fell years behind, and the agencies struggled to retain an auditor once litigation began. Tenant leaders at Meriden’s Community Towers complex had also complained for years about building conditions under Cappelletti’s leadership.
Cappelletti, through counsel in the civil matters, has denied wrongdoing. In one 2024 affidavit he acknowledged that Maynard Road and the Meriden authority bore responsibility for the Titan loan while disputing the amount owed. The federal case remains pending. The civil suits continue on separate tracks.
Together they describe a multiyear pattern in which one executive simultaneously controlled two housing authorities, their development nonprofits, and large proposed bond issuances, while lenders and, later, the agencies themselves alleged that authorization documents were false and that public and borrowed funds moved outside approved purposes.
