Federal Investigation of Schools

December 30, 2009

Ex-school worker’s time in fraud case likely 4-10 months

Ex-school worker’s time in fraud case likely 4-10 months

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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SCRANTON – A former Wilkes-Barre+Area+Career+and+Technical+Center%22>Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center employee pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he accepted thousands of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for helping a technology vendor land deals with the center.

Jeffrey Piazza, 33, of Jenkins Township, entered the plea in federal court before U.S. District Judge James Munley.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Piazza will likely face no more than four to 10 months in prison, however, based on federal sentencing guidelines.

Piazza, who resigned from his $55,700 job as an attendance coordinator at the center in November, is represented by attorney Christopher Caputo. He will be sentenced on the charge on March 30.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Houser said Piazza, who is charged with a felony count of mail fraud, conspired with a vendor who supplied technology equipment to the center to inflate the prices of the equipment so that kickbacks could be paid to Piazza. The crimes occurred between June 2006 and February 2009.

Houser said Piazza made statements that the prices were “fair” and “reasonable” so that the school would accept the contracts so that he would be able to collect the hidden kickbacks, which totaled $10,000 to $30,000.

Court papers say Piazza and the vendor created false records, some of which were created by a third unnamed person, to make it appear as if the vendor paid the third person for providing training, consulting and technical services.

The vendor then filed forms with the IRS that “falsely reported the payment of ‘non-employee compensation’ to a third person who, in fact, had not performed any services.” Those IRS forms are the basis for a charge of mail fraud.

Houser said Piazza participated with “knowledge, intent to receive kickbacks and to illegally use the U.S. Postal Service” in committing the crimes.

“Did you do the things he says you did?” Munley asked Piazza.

“Yes,” Piazza replied.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has not identified the vendor, but the FBI has taken records related to Intellacom Inc. from the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center and several other schools, including Pittston Area, Wyoming Valley West and Luzerne County Community College.

Records show the career center did more than $1 million in business with Intellacom from 2003 through 2008.

Intellacom is owned by Anthony Trombetta, who also owned the defunct restaurant Portafino’s, where Jeff Piazza had worked part time, after Piazza closed a Kingston restaurant he ran from 2002 to 2007.

That restaurant, Gellpia’z, closed after defaulting on $117,850 owed on a business development loan from Luzerne County. Piazza opened a new restaurant, La Piazza, in Jenkins Township last year.

Trombetta also owns Terra Firma Inc., which developed Insignia Point in Jenkins Township, where Piazza lives.

Neither Intellacom nor Trombetta has been accused of any wrongdoing.

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