WILKES-BARRE — In an effort to reassure members it's stable, Wilkes-Barre City Employees FCU plans to name a new chief executive within the next month and has already created new policies to prevent people from taking out fraudulent loans.
The steps, and purpose, were announced by Dominic Pannunzio, attorney for the credit union, one day after five members — including the CU's assistant manager — were indicted on fraud charges.
Jim Payne, former head of the credit union,
The five individuals were charged Thursday with conspiracy and bank fraud related to an elaborate scheme to obtain loans with false collateral and stolen identities.
"The 2,300 members of our credit union are the victims in this case," Pannunzio told wnep.com. "There is no chance of anyone losing any money, if there are loses, the credit union is fully bonded we've implemented new policies to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again in the future."
The CU's net income has steadily declined since posting a $345,698 gain in 2010. The following year net income dropped to $186,372, $177,179 in 2012, $81,091 last year, and through June the CU showed a 179,402 loss. Net worth is 12.82.
Last week indictments were returned from a grand jury in Scranton following the corruption investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
According to U.S. Attorney Peter Smith, Tino Ninotti, 35; Jason Anthony, 34; Leo Glodzik, 43; Amanda Magda, 30 and Jeffrey Serafin, age 35, were charged in three separate indictments related to activities of the credit union, according to published reports.
Glodzik is also charged with tampering with a witness.
Magda was the assistant manager at the CU. Anthony is a Wilkes-Barre city police officer, while Ninotti is a former Wilkes-Barre city police officer. Glodzik is a contractor whose company had a towing contract with the city.
Four of the defendants appeared Thursday before Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick in federal court in Wilkes-Barre. Ninotti, Anthony and Glodzik were released from custody and ordered to report to pretrial services. Glodzik was ordered to surrender his passport. Serafin was released on his own recognizance. A hearing for Magda was expected to take place Thursday.
The indictments allege that the defendants, earlier this year, individually or by aiding and abetting one another, secured loans from the CU by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, including the use of false collateral, the stolen identities of others who were not aware of loans in their names, and forgery. Magda and Anthony are charged in one indictment; Ninotti, Glodzik and Magda in a second indictment; and Serafin alone in the third indictment.
If convicted, the defendants each face up to 30 years in prison and fines in the amount of $1 million.
Sean Quinn, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Scranton, Pa., office previously attributed Payne's death to "
