U.S. Department of Justice

Middle District of Pennsylvania

PRESS RELEASE

FEDERAL OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE THE SENTENCING OF A FORMER MEMBER OF THE WILKES-BARRE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION

Peter J. Smith, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania; Janice Fedarcyk, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Troy Stemen, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division; and Kathy Tighe, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General jointly announced today that Frank Pizzella, Jr., a former member of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District Board of Education, was sentenced Friday by United States District Court Judge James M. Munley. Judge Munley sentenced Pizzella to a two-year term of probation, five months of home confinement and a $10,000 fine.

In 2004, before Pizzella was elected to the Board of Education, Pizzella conspired with others to corruptly give $5,000 in cash to a member of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District Board of Education in exchange for a teaching job. In September 2009, federal officials announced the charges against Pizzella.

According to U.S. Attorney Smith, to date, thirty individuals have been charged with criminal conduct since January 2009 in the on-going investigation targeting public corruption in Luzerne County.

This case is part of an on-going investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service and is being prosecuted by a team of federal prosecutors led by Senior Litigation Counsel Gordon Zubrod and includes Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Houser, Michael Consiglio, Amy Phillips John Gurganus and Criminal Division Chief Christian Fisanick. Smith praised this team of investigators and prosecutors for their tireless efforts on behalf of the people of Luzerne County.