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More than 200 friends and family members sent letters to U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III, who sentenced Mark Olkowski Aug. 20.
Olkowski pled guilty to four counts of filing false income tax returns and 15 counts of wire fraud.
Among those who submitted a letter are Daniel J. Gallagher, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Local 1242; Jim Julia, president of the Philadelphia Mummers Fancy Brigade Association; Rich Lazer, vice president for Whitman Council Inc., treasurer for the Burke Community Fund, Second and Jackson streets, and staffer for Councilman Jim Kenney; Ed McBride, president of EOM 144 Moore St.; John Murawski, president of Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., and Stephen Moscinski, president of the Second Street Polish Society.
“He always put community first, whether donating uniforms for youth organizations, sponsoring athletic teams or just helping out in the neighborhood,” Moscinski said in his letter. “Mark is a good-hearted person and an even better family man to his wife Karen and three children.”
Letter writers spoke of his coaching sports teams, helping to found the Polish society and mentoring so many neighborhood youths — many of whom are now adults.
Olkowski admitted to failing to report some of his income from K&O Sports, 2001 E. Moyamensing Ave., a clothing distributor that he runs with partner and state Rep. Bill Keller, and to filing for and receiving unemployment while still employed at the Pennsport site April 24.
He could have faced up to 312 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, however, Bartle sentenced him to three months per count, but those will run simultaneously, according to court records. He is set to turn himself in for his sentence Sept. 23 at which time the judge has recommended he serve at New Jersey’s Fort Dix or Fairton Federal Correctional Institution. He also must pay a $1,900 special assessment, $15,000 fine and $42,408 in restitution — $16,046 to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and $26,362 to the IRS. Upon his release, he will remain on probation for two years.
“He feels he has let down family and friends, and if you know Mark, you know that is a sentence he will spend the rest of his life trying to repair,” Julia said in his letter to the judge.
Contact Managing Editor Amanda L. Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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