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WILKES-BARRE — Leo A. Glodzik III will spend 30 months in federal prison for crimes prosecutors said were classic cases of greed and fraud.
The former city tower fought back tears as he stood before a federal judge and told him it would take “a lifetime” to make up for his mistakes.
“I made poor and bad decisions both in my business and personal life,” Glodzik said at his sentencing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Wilkes-Barre. “I’m embarrassed for what I’ve done to my family, to my children and my mother.”
Glodzik, 45, of 1009 Morgan Dr., Wilkes-Barre, pleaded guilty in April to mail fraud, filing a false tax return and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Glodzik was ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in back federal taxes and penalties and directed to report to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence on Oct. 24. He will serve three years supervised release following his prison term.
Glodzik did not comment as he left the courthouse and bolted into a waiting vehicle.
His attorney, Joseph F. Sklarosky Sr., urged U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo to consider sentencing Glodzik to community service, saying Glodzik was a flawed businessman but did not commit crimes of violence.
It was those flaws, Sklarosky argued, that landed Glodzik in hot water.
“He may have been a businessman, but he was a lousy businessman,” Sklarosky said. “He didn’t pay enough attention to his business and he didn’t listen to his accountants, but that’s not violence toward anyone.”
“Justice won’t be cheated by an alternative sentence,” Sklarosky added.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Olshefski pushed for jail time, arguing putting Glodzik behind bars sends a message to the public that “it doesn’t matter who you are or who your friends are. If you commit crimes … you will be held accountable.”
Glodzik, prosecutors say, hatched a money-making scheme to rip off vehicle owners by overcharging them or hindering their access to vehicles Glodzik placed in storage. Owners would often be forced to sign over their title to Glodzik to discharge the fees.
The one-time city tower used procedures administered through PennDOT to transfer the vehicles’ ownership, but lied on forms submitted through the mail about their actual cost. Glodzik was able to sidestep legal advertisement of the vehicles as well as avoid making payments to the state of money received for vehicles sold at auctions.
“This was about devaluing cars he was able to get into his possession so he didn’t have to pay the commonwealth or the City of Wilkes-Barre so he could have that profit in his pocket,” Olshefski said.
Glodzik falsified his tax return when he claimed zero taxable income in 2008. His actual taxable income for that year was $408,618, according to charging documents.
Glodzik, in an 2015 indictment, was charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm after a shotgun was found at his business. Glodzik maintained the weapon belonged to an employee.
In exchange for Glodzik’s plea, bank fraud charges against him in the Wilkes-Barre City Employees Federal Credit Union corruption case were dismissed. The high-profile case ensnared two city police officers and a pair of credit union employees.
In a news release Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Peter Smith said Glodzik’s “corrupt dealings with the City of Wilkes-Barre, the credit union and elements of the city’s police department constituted a sad and sleazy chapter in the city’s history.”
Smith continued: “The honest and hard-working residents, police officers and business people of the community deserve better and the city’s government must ensure that it does not happen again.”
The charges in the case state former assistant manager Amanda Magda witnessed a loan document in March 2012 for former city police officer Tino Ninotti which he acquired using the signature of his brother, Dino, who was in Afghanistan at the time. Prosecutors said Magna knew the signature was forged.
The loan, Ninotti said, would be used to purchase a pickup truck from Glodzik, but the money was never put to such use and the vehicle identification number associated with the vehicle, provided to the credit union by Ninotti, was fraudulent. Glodzik allegedly provided Ninotti with the number.
A federal grand jury in 2014 indicted Magda, Ninotti and Glodzik, along with former city police officer Jason Anthony and credit union member Jeffrey Serafin.
Caputo sentenced Magda in November to time served and two years probation. Serafin, of Scranton, was sentenced to time served and three years supervised release after he pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in January 2015.
Ninotti and Anthony were sentenced in May to 30 days in prison and time served, respectively.
Glodzik, a divorced father of four, was paroled from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility Sept. 22, 2015, after serving 90 days of a three-to-12 month sentence on charges he stole $2,100 he believed to be seized drug money, and then tried to share part of the cash with a state trooper posing as a crooked cop. The 2014 conviction cost him an exclusive towing contract with the city.
Following the hearing, Sklarosky said he was “unhappy” Glodzik received jail time due to the nature of the charges and because Ninotti and Anthony saw next to none. Asked about Glodzik’s spirits, Sklarosky said he “remains embarrassed.”
“No one wants to go to jail,” Sklarosky said. “But Leo will do his time and get on with his life.”
