Federal Investigation of Schools

December 8, 2009

Ex-Pittston Area board president to face sentencing

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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SCRANTON – Former Pittston Area School Board President Joseph Oliveri is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Dec. 22 on charges he accepted money in exchange for helping a contractor get work in the district.

Oliveri, 52, of Hughestown, resigned from the school board and his job with the Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department several days before he was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Scranton in August.

Federal prosecutors allege Oliveri accepted a cash reward of $1,500 for helping a contractor obtain work in the district.

Oliveri pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 6. He faces a maximum of 10 years in jail, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, though the actual sentence likely will be less severe.

Oliveri agreed to cooperate with investigators and could receive a recommendation for a reduced sentence as a result, though a judge would not be bound by that recommendation.

Federal court records do not name the contractor or give a date the contract was awarded, but federal authorities earlier this year seized records regarding work at Pittston Area done by Intellacom, a computer company based in Plains Township, and King Paint and Glass in Kingston.

Oliveri’s son had worked at Intellacom, and Oliveri made a motion in April 2007 to award a no-bid contract to Intellacom worth $269,192 under a state program.

Intellacom got similar no-bid work at the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center in Plains Township worth $578,364 in January 2008. Oliveri represented Pittston Area on the center’s Joint Operating Committee at the time, and supported the contract.

Intellacom has not been implicated in any wrongdoing.

Oliveri was the second Pittston Area school official to be charged by federal prosecutors.

Former district Superintendent Ross Scarantino, 64, was sentenced in October to 13 months in federal prison for accepting $5,000 in exchange for the awarding of a district contract. Scarantino is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, N.J., which is described as a low-security facility on the Fort Dix/McGuire Air Force Base military installation, according to the Federal Bureau of Prison’s Web site.

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