Feds: Bank tip prompted fraud probe of ex- president of Erie City Council

ERIE, Pa. — Sonya Arrington founded the nonprofit Mothers Against Teen Violence after the shooting death of her son in 2010. Her anti- violence efforts helped propel her to a seat on Erie City Council, where she served as president in 2018.

That same year, according to newly disclosed information at Arrington’s plea hearing last week, a tip from a bank employee launched the federal probe that uncovered Arrington’s illegal use of MATV’s funds. The investigation ended with Arrington’s guilty plea to two fraud charges in U. S. District Court in Erie.

Instead of using her nonprofit solely to fund anti- violence programs, Arrington admitted at the plea hearing, she used MATV as something of a personal ATM between 2013 and 2018, embezzling at least $ 70,000 to gamble at Presque Isle Downs & Casino and to cover personal expenses, including a family vacation to Disney World.

In January 2018, according to information presented at the plea hearing, Arrington used a $ 1,500 donation from Erie Mayor Joe Schember not for MATV but to pay her personal bills. Arrington had sought the money from the mayor for MATV, according to the U. S. attorney’s office in Erie.

“The overwhelming majority of the money that came into MATV went to her gambling and personal expenses,” Assistant U. S. Attorney Christian Trabold, who prosecuted the case, said after Arrington’s plea hearing.

Arrington also admitted to fraud related to Social Security.

Her scheme with MATV started to unravel in early 2018, when a bank employee tipped off authorities that Arrington might have been “engaged in financial irregularities” with her nonprofit based on the use of MATV’s funds, Mr. Trabold said at the plea hearing. He said in an interview that suspicious activity involved spending on personal expenses.

The concerns of the vigilant bank employee, whom the government did not identify, prompted the FBI to investigate MATV. Agents reviewed financial records and searched MATV’s offices and Arrington’s residence in March 2018.

The U. S. attorney’s office said the evidence showed Arrington received MATV donations by check or in cash, deposited some of the amounts and kept the rest for herself. She also was accused of using the MATV debit card to pay for clothes, groceries, car washes and restaurant meals.

Records from the ATM at Presque Isle Downs & Casino, in Summit Township, Erie County, showed that Arrington used the MATV debit card to withdraw money there at least 113 times between April 2012 and January 2018, the government said. Evidence showed she used the same debit card at an ATM at a Sheetz near the casino 50 to 100 times. In each case, the government said, Arrington used the money to gamble at the casino.

Since Arrington’s indictment, in April 2018, the U. S. attorney’s office had never revealed, until last Tuesday, what led the authorities to investigate Arrington, who was president of City Council when she was charged. The U. S. attorney’s office credited the bank employee.

“The banking community self- polices their own activity,” U. S. Attorney Scott Brady, based in Pittsburgh, said in an interview outside the federal courthouse in Erie after the plea hearing. Mr. Brady is the U. S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, which includes Erie.

“Every individual who made a donation to Sonya Arrington’s nonprofit organization to help prevent teen violence was cheated,” Mr. Brady said.

Arrington, 53, entered her plea in a Zoom teleconference before Senior U. S. District Judge David S. Cercone. She faces a maximum of 25 years in federal prison at her sentencing before Judge Cercone on Feb. 23.

Arrington, who left office in January after a single fouryear term on City Council, is expected to get a sentence that is less than the maximum, based on her guilty plea and other factors, such as the lack of a prior record.

A federal grand jury indicted Arrington on April 11, 2018, on charges that she embezzled at least $ 70,000 intended for MATV between 2011 and 2018. Those are roughly the same years she lost more than $ 114,000 gambling at Presque Isle Downs & Casino, according to court records.

The indictment charged Arrington with 33 counts — 31 counts of wire fraud and one count each of theft of government property and submitting a false writing or false document to the Social Security Administration.

Arrington pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, covering the period of June 2013 to January 2018, and to the count pertaining to false writing.

By pleading guilty to both counts, Arrington agreed to accept responsibility for the conduct alleged in all of the other 31 counts, Mr. Trabold said. The government can cite all that conduct in determining Arrington’s sentence. Mr. Trabold said the government as part of the plea deal agreed, at Arrington’s sentencing, to give her credit for pleading guilty.

The wire fraud count carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. The falsewriting count carries a maximum sentence of five years. Mr. Trabold said the government will seek restitution as part of the sentence.