CLEARFIELD – More charges are going to be filed soon against former DuBois City Manager John Fred “Herm” Suplizio, who is already accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from public accounts and filing fraudulent tax returns.
In April of last year, a search warrant was executed on Suplizio’s residence and offices and records of his banking activities were seized.
The charges were filed as a result of an investigation and grand jury proceedings covering Suplizio’s finances starting in 2014.
Suplizio, 63, in addition to being City Manager since 2010, was also the executive director of the DuBois Area United Way, was affiliated with the DuBois Volunteer Fire Department and handled funds for DuBois Community Days.
The total alleged taken by Suplizio is over $620,000, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s office.
He was charged in March by state police and a special agent with the AG’s office with five felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, felony restricted activities-conflict of interest, eight misdemeanor counts of fraudulent sales tax return and misdemeanor misapply entrusted property.
During a status conference on Wednesday, which was presided over by Senior Judge Charles Saylor of Northumberland County, it was noted that the attorney general’s office is planning to file additional charges.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Summer Carroll stated that the charges should be filed sometime within the next two weeks.
After this, another preliminary hearing will be scheduled for those offenses. Suplizio waived his right to a hearing on the original charges.
Saylor stated that the new charges will “start the clock all over again” on the case, meaning they cannot yet set a potential trial date. He suggested having another conference in 60 days to discuss the trial.
In their meeting on Monday night, DuBois City Council voted to begin to negotiate a buyout of Suplizio’s contract with the city and advertise the position. For more details on the meeting, click here.
According to court documents, the investigation began after state police received an anonymous letter from “concerned citizens” who noted that Suplizio appeared to be directing United Way donations to the City of DuBois.
This activity was later determined to be permissible because they were designated for a specific project, the city’s athletic fields.
But the investigation continued and the “fraudulent activity was ultimately discovered,” it says in the criminal complaint.
Testimony to the grand jury revealed that “over the course of several years, Suplizio withdrew large sums of cash from the DuBois Volunteer Fire Department bank accounts associated with the DuBois Community Days.”
This was possible because these accounts, although listed as municipal, were not monitored by the city officials.
There are four bank accounts associated with the Community Days Fund, which is not a separate non-profit entity but used the tax identification from the city, which should also have been monitored by officials.
Reportedly, quarterly payments from Advanced Disposal Systems of up to $60,000 per year to cover billing for the company’s waste removal were also put into these accounts instead of the city accounts.
“In reality, this arrangement for ‘billing’ was simply a way for Suplizio to receive ‘kick-backs,’” it says in the complaint.
Credit card records show from June of 2014 to February of 2022 that he had $677,120.51 in purchases of which over $376,000 was for public expenses.
Payments totaling $102,244.66 allegedly came from three public accounts.
In addition, a “good portion” of the public expenses were later used as tax deductions on his personal income tax filings.
From 2014 to 2021, Suplizio received reimbursement payments from the city’s general fund for mileage and his personal cell phone, despite not having submitted any reimbursement forms. These payments totaled $26,077.56.
He later claimed these expenses as not reimbursed on his taxes, according to officials.
During this same time, Suplizio allegedly received reimbursements from the DuBois Area United Way for the same expenses. This totaled $20,640.
“It was determined that between October of 2015 and January of 2020, Suplizio paid his Visa personal credit card bill with eight checks written on the DAUW account totaling $10,252.72.”
This gives him a total of alleged fraudulent transactions of $41,933.30 associated with the DAUW checking account, according to court documents.
The complaint lists fraudulent transactions with three of the four accounts associated with the DVFD.
The total from the parade account is reportedly $99,108.40 with the additional tax fraud of $56,894.77.
The Community Days CD account had numerous “questionable withdrawals” including withdrawals that reportedly were deposited later to his personal accounts or through the parade account into his own.
Among these withdrawals were funds allegedly used to make political contributions.
The total amount of fraud on this account with the tax amounts is estimated at $142,934.56.
The DVFD Community Fund checking account also showed fraudulent activity totaling $250,867.21, according to investigators.
Another part of his alleged fraud involves moving money between the community and his personal accounts and into an investment account from which he later withdrew the funds.
“The personal checking and savings accounts used to fund these investments were linked back to the fraudulent transactions involving public funds.”
In addition, Suplizio is accused of using part of this money for gambling at a casino in Salamanca, New York. This total is estimated to be $101,790 from 2014 to 2021.
The last accusation against Suplizio involves the sale of water from the city to several fracking companies, some of which went directly to Suplizio. This total is reportedly $12,323.57.
Three prior payments from the companies, which were unable to be verified because they were made between 2004 and 2015, allegedly exceeded $1 million.