Preate to resign as Attorney General

Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate, a University alumnus, agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and resign from office Tuesday. The attorney general, a 1965 graduate of the University Law School and a 1962 graduate of the Wharton School, could go to jail for as long as five years and be fined as much as $250,000 for the single federal charge. On Tuesday Preate told U.S. Middle District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo that he was pleading guilty. Preate turned control of the Attorney General's Office to top deputy Walter Cohen, and he will officially resign June 23. U.S. Attorney David Barasch said Tuesday that Preate engaged in "a decade-long scheme of repeated violations of state campaign finance law in a pattern of fraud, concealment and deception." Preate, a former president of the Newman Council at the University, had been under investigation for the last five years concerning his campaign finances. He solicited cash contributions for his campaign from illegal video poker operators and hid the funds from election officials, prosecutors said in court papers. The agreement, which was signed last week, says Preate filed false and misleading documents to conceal the cash donations. Throughout the investigation, Preate continually denied any wrongdoing and maintained that he would be vindicated by the federal probe. The investigation found that poker operators contributed about $40,000 to Preate's campaign, half of that in cash donations above the legal limit of $100, to buy relaxed enforcement of gambling laws by the state, prosecutors said in court documents. Preate was district attorney of Lackawanna County from 1977 to 1989 and has been attorney general since 1989. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor last year. Pennsylvania state law requires the governor to nominate a replacement for the vacancy in the attorney general's office. The replacement will serve the remaining 1 1/2 years of Preate's term. The Associated Press contributed to this Article.

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