Louis DeNaples is an American businessman, banker, and casino owner from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was the owner of Keystone Landfill Inc., DeNaples Auto Parts Inc. and chairman of the board of the First National Community Bancorp. In January 2008, DeNaples was charged with four counts of perjury related to his ties with the Bufalino crime family in his application for a Pennsylvania state gambling license. [1] The charges were dropped in April 2009 after DeNaples agreed to turn over legal control of Mount Airy Casino resort to his family. [2]
In 1978, DeNaples pleaded no contest to a conspiracy charge of defrauding the U.S. government of $525,000 in contracts related to the cleanup and recovery of the City of Scranton in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes. [1] Prosecutors claimed DeNaples plotted with three county employees to falsify records to obtain $525,000 in federal reimbursements. [3] His trial ended in a hung jury with one holdout forcing an acquittal. He was fined $10,000 and was placed on probation for three years. In 1983, four people, including James Osticco, a Bufalino crime family underboss, were convicted in 1982 of jury tampering for bribing the holdout juror and her husband in DeNaples's trial. [4]
In 2001, as part of a federal gambling investigation, four informants made mention of a relationship between DeNaples and current leader of the Bufalino crime family William D'Elia. The informants alleged DeNaples made payments to D'Elia for undisclosed work and paid the crime boss protection money. [4]
In April 2012, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ordered DeNaples to resign as chairman of First National Community Bancorp and begin divesting himself of his controlling interest in the bank owing to his 2009 perjury charges, which were later dropped. On May 10, 2012, a three-judge panel denied his appeal and ordered his immediate resignation. [5]
In 2013, a federal appeals court unanimously reversed the ban, allowing DeNaples back on the board of First National Community Bank, and blasted regulators for abusing the law. From the Allentown Morning Call: "The 22-page decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia lambasted the federal regulators for 'bizarre,' 'untenable' and 'scatter-shot' enforcement of the law and faulted regulators for inconsistently applying the unclear and not properly framed or communicated rules." [6]
In 2015, DeNaples petitioned the Pennsylvania Gaming Board to allow his business to conduct business such as garbage collection and snow removal at the Mount Airy Casino, however the board voted against the proposal. [7]
WNEP-TV is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic. Through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member WVIA-TV, the two stations transmit using WNEP-TV's spectrum from an antenna at Penobscot Knob near Mountain Top.
The Bufalino crime family, also known as the Pittston crime family, Scranton Wilkes-Barre crime family, Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family, Northeastern Pennsylvania Mafia, or Scranton Mafia, was an Italian-American Mafia crime family active in Northeastern Pennsylvania, primarily in the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Pittston.
WYOU is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of Wilkes-Barre–licensed NBC affiliate WBRE-TV, for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on South Franklin Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre, with a news bureau and sales office next to WYOU's former studios on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. WYOU's transmitter is located at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top.
WSWB is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by MPS Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with New Age Media, owner of Hazleton-licensed Fox affiliate and company flagship WOLF-TV and Williamsport-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WQMY, for the provision of certain services. All three stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The stations share studios on PA 315 in the Fox Hill section of Plains Township; WSWB's transmitter is located on Bald Mountain, northwest of Scranton and I-476. However, newscasts have originated from the facilities of sister station and CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana since January 2017.
WOLF-TV is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is the flagship property of locally based New Age Media, LLC, and is co-owned with Williamsport-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WQMY ; New Age also provides certain services to Scranton-licensed CW affiliate WSWB under a management services agreement (MSA) with MPS Media. All three stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The stations share studios on PA 315 in the Fox Hill section of Plains Township; WOLF-TV's transmitter is located at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. However, newscasts have originated from the facilities of sister station and CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana since January 2017.
Matt Birkbeck is an American investigative journalist and author.
Robert J. Mellow is an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 22nd District from 1971 to 2010. He also served as the Minority Floor Leader from 1994 to 2010 and President pro tempore from 1992 to 1994.
Daniel John Flood was an American attorney and politician, a flamboyant and long-serving Democratic United States Representative from Pennsylvania. First elected to the US House in 1944, he served continuously from 1955 to 1980. Flood was credited with leading the effort to help the Wilkes-Barre area recover after the 1972 effects of the Agnes Flood.
Russell Alfred Bufalino was an Italian-American mobster who became the crime boss of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Italian-American Mafia crime family known as the Bufalino crime family, which he ruled from 1959 to 1994. He was a cousin of attorney William Bufalino, the longtime counsel for Jimmy Hoffa.
William "Big Billy" D'Elia is an American former mobster who was the head of the Bufalino crime family and protégé of family namesake Russell Bufalino. Because of his close relationship with Bufalino and his hitman Frank Sheeran, law enforcement had long believed that D'Elia knew many details of Bufalino's long history within organized crime, including his alleged role in the 1975 disappearance of former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.
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John Sciandra was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bufalino crime family of Pennsylvania from 1933 until 1949.
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Edwin Michael Kosik was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
James Clifford Timlin was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania from 1984 to 2003. Timlin was accused in a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report of covering up sexual abuse crimes by priests in his diocese during his tenure as bishop.
The "kids for cash" scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, US. In 2008, judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were convicted of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at the PA Child Care for-profit detention centers.
Kathleen Granahan Kane is an American former politician and lawyer who served as the 48th Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 2013 until her resignation in 2016 following her conviction for perjury, obstruction of justice and related charges for illegal activities while she was attorney general. She was the first woman and first Democrat ever elected to the position.
Jessie Con-ui is an American criminal who, when a prisoner at United States Penitentiary, Canaan for a 2013 murder and conspiracy to commit murder, killed a corrections officer. He was serving time at the penitentiary for a gang murder he committed in Arizona. Con-ui's criminal past is lengthy, being arrested in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. His charges include dozens of charges of drug use, distribution, trafficking, aggravated assault, robbery, attempted murder and murder.
Steven Joseph La Torre was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bufalino crime family. He founded what would become the Bufalino crime family, which he ran from 1903 to 1908. La Torre died on July 5, 1984.