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Investigators raid home of former Niles mayor Ralph Infante
Former mayor under investigation by Ohio Auditor’s Office
By Ed Runyan
and Jordan Cohen
NILES
The strongest evidence yet that criminal investigators are focused on former Niles Mayor Ralph Infante surfaced Monday, as more than a dozen agents with the Ohio Auditor’s Office and other agencies descended on Infante’s North Rhodes Avenue home with a search warrant.
Agents also used a warrant to search a tavern at 1762 N. State St. in Girard that is associated with Infante, but it was less clear whether agents were actively working inside Monday because there were only a couple of cars parked there.
The business is called Infante’s Lounge on various Internet listings, but the sign in front says ITAM 39.
The auditor’s office provided no information about the nature of the investigation that prompted the search warrants, but more than a dozen unmarked vehicles were parked on the street outside of the mayor’s house starting early Monday afternoon. The only marked vehicle was from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investion.
Agencies involved are the auditor’s Special Investigation Unit, BCI Criminal Investigation Cyber Crime Unit, FBI, IRS, Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and Niles Police Department, said Carrie Bartunek, spokeswoman for the state auditor. Other agencies refererred questions to Bartunek because the auditor’s office is the lead agency.
The search warrants, requested by the auditor’s office, are sealed, meaning no information about them is public, Bartunek said.
Agents with the auditor’s Special Investigation Unit also spent an afternoon at Infante’s office at Niles City Hall on Oct. 14, 2014, searching for documents and other records while the state auditor’s office was conducting an audit of the city’s books.
That audit followed the state auditor’s Oct. 8, 2014, announcement that the city had been placed in fiscal emergency because of deficit spending.
The special unit also investigated two theft cases earlier in 2014 that led to two women being convicted of theft in office for stealing money from their jobs with the city.
The cases involved Phyllis Wilson, 61, a former treasurer’s office employee, who stole $142,000; and Heidi Powell, 33, who stole $731 from her job in the city’s billing office.
More recently, in the spring of 2015, agents with Ohio BCI, Ohio Auditor’s Office and FBI spent about two weeks at the Niles zoning and building-inspection department conducting a broad search of building-related files.
Some of those same agents returned to the zoning and building department in early December 2015 to remove files related to construction of the Cafaro Co. headquarters at Eastwood Mall, the completed Residence Inn by Marriott and Hampton Inn and Suites, both at the Eastwood Mall complex; and the Italian Marketplace in the former Alberni’s Restaurant space on Youngstown-Warren Road.
That same day, investigators searched the current Cafaro Co. corporate offices on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown.
Infante lost in the Democratic primary election in 2015 to Thomas Scarnecchia, the current mayor, after Infante had served as Niles mayor 24 years. Infante is secretary of the Trumbull County Democratic Party.