WILKES-BARRE, Penn.—Two former Wilkes-Barre police officers have pleaded guilty to defrauding Wilkes-Barre City Employees FCU here.
Entering the pleases were Tino Ninotti, 36, who signed his brother’s name on loan documents while his brother was deployed in Afghanistan in 2012, and Jason Anthony, 35, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud, according to the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. Judge A. Richard Caputo accepted their guilty pleas after asking the two former officers if they understood they gave up their appellate rights. Sentencing is set for August.
Ninotti and Anthony have agreed to cooperate as a “material condition” under the terms of the plea agreement to provide information about other criminal conduct and testify before a federal grand jury and court proceedings involving Leo Glodzik III, 44, who is facing multiple counts of bank fraud and conspiracy, including tampering with a witness and unlawfully possessing a firearm. Ninotti, Glodzik and former credit union assistant manager Amanda Magda, 32, of Wilkes-Barre, were indicted by a federal grand jury in August, along with Anthony, the Times Leader reported.
Glodzik is accused of giving Ninotti a vehicle identification number when Ninotti applied for a $25,086 loan from the credit union to purchase a 2011 Dodge Ram pickup truck on March 23, 2012, according to the indictment. The loan was not used to purchase the Dodge and the vehicle identification number Ninotti listed on the loan application as collateral did not match the pickup truck, according to the indictment.
A fifth defendant, credit union member Jeffrey Sarafin, was indicted at the same time in a separate bank fraud case involving a fraudulent $10,000 loan. He pleaded guilty in January and faces a sentencing hearing on May 5, the Times Leader reported.