Former transportation director gets prison time

GREENFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A former transportation director was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in a conspiracy involving school district transportation contracts, authorities announced.

U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith said that 42-year-old John Wansacz Jr., who served as director of transportation for the Lakeland School District in Pennsylvania, previously admitted to using his official position to steer contracts to Northeast Student Transportation, a company in which he had a financial interest and from which he received payments of more than $70,000 in a three-year period.

Wansacz was charged in an information filed by the U.S. attorney in July 2011, the result of an FBI investigation.

Wansacz was charged with violating the federal statute that prohibits obtaining property by fraud from an organization that receives federal program funds. In August, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain by fraud school district funds in connection with transportation contracts he recommended from 2006 through 2009.

Wansacz was sentenced on May 30. In addition to the five months in prison, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik ordered him to serve two years on supervised release after his prison stay and to serve the first five months of supervised release on home confinement.

The former transportation director must also pay a $3,000 fine and a $100 special assessment and perform 50 hours of community service.