Robert Cappelletti

Introduction

Robert Cappelletti, 60, of Middlebury, Connecticut, is the former executive director of the Meriden Housing Authority who was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2026 on nine counts of fraud and money laundering, accused of borrowing $16.2 million in his nonprofit’s name without authorization and diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to himself. The charges stem from his time leading public housing for Meriden and, under a shared-services agreement, Groton — positions he held for roughly fifteen years before departing in 2025.

Background Information

Cappelletti served as executive director of the Meriden Housing Authority (MHA), which provides public housing for low-income families in Meriden, from approximately 2009 to May 2025, and sat on the board of the Maynard Road Corporation (MRC), a nonprofit that supported development and redevelopment projects for the authority. From approximately 2016 to January 2025 he also led the Groton Housing Authority (GHA) under a shared services agreement with Meriden. A federal grand jury in New Haven returned the nine-count indictment — five counts of wire fraud and four counts of making illegal monetary transactions — on September 22, 2026, and he was arrested the following Thursday.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The conduct described here is drawn from a federal indictment returned in the District of Connecticut. Cappelletti has been charged but has pleaded not guilty, and every claim below is an allegation he is presumed innocent of until proven guilty at trial.

Prosecutors allege that in 2022 Cappelletti fraudulently borrowed $16.2 million from a lender, purportedly on behalf of the Maynard Road Corporation, executing a promissory note for the MRC and a guarantee on behalf of the MHA without the authorization of either entity’s board, and backing the loan with fraudulent board resolutions purporting to show both entities had approved it. In July 2022, the lender wired $13,961,750 — the proceeds after costs and fees — into an MRC bank account, according to the indictment.

Cappelletti then allegedly “directed a series of financial transactions designed to enrich himself and conceal his fraudulent conduct”: roughly $450,000 was deposited into his personal investment account and $374,752.87 went toward the mortgage on his personal residence, per prosecutors. The indictment further alleges that although the Groton Housing Authority and its affiliate, the Greater Groton Realty Corporation, were not parties to or guarantors of the loan, he used his position as Groton’s executive director to steer about $1 million of that authority’s funds toward the debt — telling them the payments related to a forthcoming bond for a Groton development project that would be reimbursed, and supporting the story with forged invoices.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The arrest drew a sharp response from Groton officials. “Mr. Cappelletti violated the trust placed in him by the Groton Housing Authority and the residents that it serves,” said Michael J. Rose, an attorney for the authority, which has since separated from Meriden’s, calling the indictment the start of holding him “criminally accountable for breaching that trust.” Groton Town Manager John Burt told The Day, “It has been a long process, and I’m glad we have reached the next step in allowing the facts to come to light.” U.S. Attorney for Connecticut David X. Sullivan announced the charges, and the Groton Housing Authority has also sued Cappelletti civilly.

Current Status

Cappelletti appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector in New Haven, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $500,000 bond pending trial. The case was investigated jointly by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel J. Gentile and Raymond Miller. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on each wire fraud count and up to 10 years on each illegal-monetary-transactions count. A separate civil suit in Connecticut Superior Court accuses Cappelletti and property manager Jamie Lee of fraud and conspiracy; Realtor.com reported it reached out to his lawyer for comment.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Cappelletti’s three-decade run in Connecticut public housing ended with his May 2025 departure from Meriden and is now bookended by a federal indictment that, if it results in conviction, would carry a potential sentence measured in decades. The Groton authority he directed has separated from Meriden, and its civil suit seeks accountability for the allegedly misdirected payments; the criminal case will test whether one of the state’s longest-serving housing executives diverted nearly $1 million of public-housing money to his own ends.

Sources

source — “Former Connecticut housing authority exec charged with $16.2 million loan fraud,” NY Post/Realtor.com, September 29, 2026
source — “Former Executive Director Of Meriden Housing Authority Arrested: Feds,” Patch, September 2026
source — “Former Meriden, Groton housing chief charged in alleged $16.2M loan fraud,” Hartford Business Journal, September 2026