Payne's Death Ruled Suicide; FBI Probe Of Wilkes-Barre CU Heats Up

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The death of Jim Payne, head of Wilkes-Barre City Employees FCU, has been ruled a suicide and the federal investigation surrounding the CU has heated up.

Luzerne County Coroner William Lisman said Payne's death resulted from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a published report.

March 10, Payne was found dead at his home. Early last week the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that the CU was a target of an ongoing corruption investigation.

Late last week the Federal Bureau of Investigation served a subpoena on Wilkes-Barre City Employees FCU. Sean Quinn, director of the FBI's Scranton, Penn., office, acknowledged the corruption investigation, stating arrests would be coming. He did not say, though, if Payne, 50, was a target.

"I can tell you [Payne's death] is a very sad and regrettable incident, and I believe it is the byproduct of corruption," Quinn told The Scranton Times-Tribune. "I don't attribute it to the investigation, but I attribute it to corruption."

NCUA auditors and the FBI have descended on the CU, with a published report putting the numbers at a half-dozen FBI agents and five NCUA staff.

"They are going over all the files," the credit union's attorney, Dominick Pannunzio, told the Citizens Voice last week. "They've been here for the last several days."

The $42 million-asset credit union had not lost money in the last four years, making an $81,091 profit in 2013. However, net income has declined steadily since 2010, when the institution made $345,698. Net worth stood at 12.3% at the end of 2013.

Quinn said the FBI considered the credit union as a "witness" and a "victim" in an ongoing criminal investigation, adding individual employees of the credit union were potential targets of the investigation. Payne was one of three employees at the CU.

Published reports have brought attention, as well, to Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton exclusively doing appraisals for the credit union. Leighton owns a real estate business, C.A. Leighton Co. Inc. The CU rents space on the first floor of Wilkes-Barre City Hall.

Frank Sorick, president of the Wilkes-Barre City Taxpayers Association told the Citizens Voice that city council should use "its investigative authority to find out" if it is a conflict of interest for the mayor to receive payments from "a credit union whose primary members are the relatives and employees of this city."

Payne’s apparent suicide comes less than a year after the late John DuPree Jr., former manager of Shiloh of Alexandria FCU, took his own life after allegedly embezzling millions of dollars that led to the credit union's demise, according to a civil complaint filed by the NCUA.