A former mayor of Utica in upstate New York admitted Friday to spending nearly all of the scholarship donations raised in memory of his late wife on himself, federal prosecutors said.
Louis LaPolla, 78, pled guilty in a federal court in Syracuse to “mail fraud for soliciting and then stealing donations intended for a scholarship fund in his late wife’s name,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York said in a statement Friday.
LaPolla admitted to spending on himself nearly all of the almost $40,000 donated to memorialize Andrea LaPolla, who died in 2018, according to the statement. The scholarship fund was reportedly meant to go toward supporting Utica City School District (UCSD) students who wanted to pursue college-level education in health-related fields.
LaPolla was the mayor of Utica from 1984 to 1995 and USCD board president from 2018 to 2022 after…
