Federal Officials Announce the Filing of an Criminal Information Charging Former Jenkins Township Supervisor as Part of an Ongoing Public Corruption Investigation
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 13, 2010 |
Dennis C. Pfannenschmidt, 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 the filing of a criminal information pursuant to an ongoing investigation targeting public corruption in northeast Pennsylvania. Russell Arnone, former Jenkins Township Supervisor, is charged with misprision of a felony. It is alleged that Arnone had information relating to the corrupt receipt of a reward for official action and failed to disclose this knowledge to federal investigators.
The charge carries a maximum three-year term of imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
According to U.S. Attorney Pfannenschmidt, Arnone is the 29th person charged with criminal conduct since late January 2009, in the ongoing investigation.
This case is part of an ongoing investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Department of Education 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. Pfannenschmidt praised this team of investigators and prosecutors for their tireless efforts on behalf of the people of northeastern Pennsylvania. Anyone with information is asked to call the public corruption task force toll free at 1-866-996-4320.
An Indictment or Information is not evidence of guilt but simply a description of the charge made by the Grand Jury and/or United States Attorney against a defendant. A charged defendant is presumed innocent until a jury returns a unanimous finding that the United States has proven the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt or until the defendant has pled guilty to the charges.