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SCRANTON —Retired Wilkes-Barre police officer Tino Ninotti is expected to admit he cheated the Wilkes-Barre City Federal Credit Union, according to court documents filed Monday.
A plea agreement filed in federal court, Scranton, calls for Ninotti, 35, of Hunlock Township, to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, which has a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Ninotti’s attorney, Demetrius Fannick, said he couldn’t discuss the plea agreement due to it being a “pending matter.”
According to the plea agreement, Ninotti has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators by providing information “concerning the unlawful activities of others.”
Last week, Ninotti’s former colleague on the city police force, Jason Anthony, 35, of Wilkes-Barre, filed a similar plea agreement in federal court.
Ninotti, Anthony, Leo Glodzik III, and Amanda Magda were indicted by a federal grand jury on bank fraud charges in August after federal investigators seized records from the credit union in March and April 2014.
The plea agreements by Ninotti and Anthony are subject to approval by U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo.
Anthony’s plea agreement is scheduled to be presented before Caputo on April 27. No date has been scheduled for Ninotti’s plea agreement to be introduced to Caputo.
With plea agreements for Ninotti and Anthony being offered, only Glodzik and Magda remain unresolved. A trial in the case is scheduled to begin April 20 in federal court in Wilkes-Barre.
Glodzik, proprietor of LAG Towing and Transport whose towing contact with Wilkes-Barre was terminated by Mayor Thomas Leighton last week, is accused of giving Ninotti a vehicle identification number when Ninotti applied for a $25,086.97 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, the indictment says.
Magda, 32, of Wilkes-Barre. was charged with witnessing Ninotti allegedly sign the loan application using another name of a credit union member. She has since resigned her position as assistant manager of the city credit union.
Anthony, who has been suspended without pay, was accused of signing a woman’s name on a loan document in securing a $7,159 loan on Jan. 15, 2014. Anthony’s signature of a woman’s name on the loan document was allegedly witnessed by Magda, 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 April 28.