A former Scranton attorney was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $267,000 in restitution for stealing from a client and defrauding the federal government.
Jonathan Olivetti, 42, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty in 2021 to mail fraud and tax evasion for stealing nearly $92,000 from a client and hiding other income from the government. He also pleaded guilty to wire fraud for defrauding a COVID-19 relief program designed to help struggling businesses out of $42,600.
Federal prosecutors said Olivetti, who had offices in Scranton and Philadelphia, pilfered money from the estate of a person who was posthumously awarded $138,306 from a lawsuit.
The person’s mother, who was not identified, hired him in 2019 to administer the estate. She repeatedly asked him to disburse the funds, but he falsely told her they had been seized by the Internal Revenue Service. She later learned he withdrew $91,991 of the funds between May 2019 and May 2020.
In the COVID-19 relief case, prosecutors said Olivetti provided false information on an application for the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020 and 2021, which resulted in him being paid more money than he was entitled to receive.
Prosecutors said Olivetti also hid personal income by depositing money into an escrow account that held clients’ funds, resulting in a tax loss of $133,269 to the government.
The sentence, imposed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo, was at the high end of sentencing guidelines, which called for a sentence of 24 to 30 months.
In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenny Roberts sought a stiff sentence, noting Olivetti continued to commit crimes while under investigation for the tax evasion case.
In addition to the prison sentence, Rambo ordered Olivetti to serve two years of supervised release and to pay restitution of $267,861. She ordered him to turn himself in on June 9.