Joseph Mollicone Jr., whose multi-million dollar embezzlement triggered the Rhode Island banking crisis of 1991, will make his first bid for parole on June 21, an event sure to stir the still-raw emotions of the financial catastrophe.

A hearing on Mollicone's bid for freedom will be held at the medium security section of the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, where Mollicone is housed, says Lisa S. Holley, chairwoman of the state Parole Board.

Mollicone's lawyer, Robert B. Mann, believes a "strong case" can be made for Mollicone's release after he's served one-third of a 30-year jail term (the harshest punishment ever for a white collar criminal in Rhode Island).

A Superior Court jury in 1993 convicted Mollicone of 26 counts of embezzlement, conspiracy, and violation of banking laws, after authorities said he took at least $12 million from Heritage Loan and Investment Co., where he was president. That theft, in turn, caused the collapse of the shaky Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corp. (RISDIC), which insured the deposits of 45 banks and credit unions.

Mollicone became a Rhode Island legend when he disappeared before then-governor Bruce Sundlun closed the 45 institutions as he took office January 1, 1991. There were Elvis-like sightings of the fugitive banker. Residents imagined him in Europe or on a tropical island, but he was actually living in Salt Lake City and surrendered in 1992.

RISDIC was a private organization (Mollicone was its vice president), but the state's poor supervision of RISDIC and its institutions is among the reasons that the state repaid thousands of depositors who had $2.1 billion in the institutions, some of which never reopened. A portion of the state sales tax went to repay $697 million worth of bonds used for repayments. Recoveries from foreclosed RISDIC properties, insurance companies, and an auditing firm reduced the state's overall cost to $333 million.

On July 28, 1993, Superior Court Judge Dominic Cresto sentenced Mollicone, then 50, to serve 30 years of a 40-year prison term, and to pay $12 million in restitution and a $420,000 fine.

Holley, the parole chairwoman, said only Mollicone and his lawyer will be allowed to address the board on his behalf. "With Mr. Mollicone, as with any other inmate, there will be certain things that we look for," she says. Those standards, she notes, include how an inmate has behaved in prison, whether he's remorseful about the crime, and has a plan for his release.

State law allows crime victims to appear separately, Holley says, and in this case the official "victims" will include only the overseers of the ruined bank and insurance firm. But she notes that some of the thousands of depositors who were cut off from their funds might want to write or address the board, and if necessary, a separate hearing could be scheduled for them.

What is not clear is whether the press will be allowed to cover Mollicone's hearing. Holley said inmate hearings are confidential, unless the inmate himself decides otherwise. Mann said his client had not yet made a decision on whether to allow media coverage.