Audit: Ex-police chief managed two secret village bank accounts

COLUMBUS

A former village of Leetonia police chief managed two secret bank accounts from which he paid himself more than $14,000, according to an audit released Thursday by Auditor of State Dave Yost. Auditors issued $15,916 in findings for recovery against John Soldano, which he repaid to the village Jan. 17.

Soldano was indicted in May on a third-degree felony count of theft in office after the Auditor of State’s Public Integrity Assurance Team determined he wrote 21 checks to himself from two accounts he operated without the fiscal officer’s knowledge.

The payments, totaling $14,200, lacked supporting documentation and authorization from the village.

“A police chief should be the gold standard of integrity for a community,” Yost said. “It’s a sad day for everyone in law enforcement when one of their own abuses the public’s trust.”

Auditors identified more fraudulent activity while comparing the village’s dispatch logs to Soldano’s leave balances. Records showed Soldano was paid for 258 hours and 15 minutes of leave in 2012 and 2013, but the hours were not deducted from his leave balances. The false leave balances resulted in a $1,716 overpayment for unused leave when Soldano retired in October 2015.