20 Nov AG Raids Scranton School Board Offices

State law enforcement officials raided the offices of the Scranton School District Tuesday and seized boxes of evidence for the ongoing corruption investigation of district practices.  State Police and investigators from the Office of the Attorney General seized files and computers from the board secretary and transportation offices.  The raid is linked to the September arrest of Daniel Sansky, who faces several felony counts for defrauding taxpayers.

Sansky is charged with using his business, Danny’s Auto Service, to overbill and double-bill for work performed on district vehicles.

The indictment, and Tuesday’s raid, were set in motion by a scathing 2017 performance audit by Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.  That report found that serious financial instability and an extreme level of board and administrative staff dysfunction rarely observed in school district audits.

“The Scranton School District is in self-inflicted financial and operational distress,” DePasquale said at the time. “There is way too much finger pointing going on in this district, and no one is taking responsibility for anything.”

Since the audit was made public, a minority group including Schools Directors Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Kate Gilmartin, and Tom Schuster have pushed for reforms of district contracting and purchasing practices.  They have repeatedly requested that law enforcement intervene.  Today’s raid is further proof that someone in Harrisburg listened.