A Greensburg man was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a fine after pleading guilty to defrauding Allegheny Power.
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced Friday that Mark Marsula, an electrical contractor and resident of Greensburg, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry in Pittsburgh.
McVerry imposed a sentence of 12 months' probation on Marsula, 44, who also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and $232,500 in restitution, according to Buchanan.
Marsula ran an electrical contracting business that did work at the Allegheny Power office complex in Greensburg from 1996 to 2000. According to the federal prosecutors, he defrauded the utility by submitting false bills that inflated the charges for the work done. He also bribed an Allegheny Power manager responsible for oversight of the construction work who approved the payments on the false bills.
The manager, Brian Ramsey, 44, of Murrysville, was convicted by a federal jury in May after four days of deliberations. He was convicted of five counts of mail fraud, two counts of filing false tax returns and single counts of racketeering and conspiracy. He was cleared of three additional counts of mail fraud.
Ramsey was one of 14 people charged in a federal probe of a construction scheme that resulted in millions of dollars in inflated bills at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh; UPMC Shadyside; and Allegheny Power, a subsidiary of Allegheny Energy Inc. of Greensburg. Ramsey will be sentenced on Sept. 17 by McVerry.
In sentencing Marsula, McVerry noted the sentence was intended to reflect Marsula's otherwise spotless record and diligent efforts to make amends through admitting his responsibility, pleading guilty and cooperating in the government's investigation.
