Mike Fleck sent to federal prison where mob boss Whitey Bulger was killed

Mike Fleck, the former Lehigh Valley campaign consultant whose cooperation with the FBI helped to convict ex-Mayor Ed Pawlowski of federal corruption crimes, has been assigned to a federal prison in West Virginia that made headlines last year when mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was murdered there.Fleck, 43, was held temporarily at a federal prison in Philadelphia following his April sentencing on corruption and tax-related charges.Tuesday morning, the federal Bureau of Prisons database listed Fleck as an inmate at USP Hazelton, a rural Appalachian facility about two miles west of West Virginia’s border with Maryland.Nicknamed “Misery Mountain,” USP Hazelton is a high security penitentiary with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Records indicate that Fleck is in the high security site, but his location could not be immediately confirmed.Fleck was handcuffed and taken into custody at the conclusion of his April 26 hearing, where Chief U.S. District Court Judge Juan R. Sanchez sentenced him to five years behind bars for his role in a conspiracy to award city contracts to Pawlowski’s campaign donors. During the hearing, federal prosecutors said the citizens of Allentown got a corrupt “tag team” in the pair rather than the honesty and transparency that they deserved.Mike Fleck sentenced to five years in prison for role in Allentown’s pay-to-play schemeFleck pleaded guilty in 2016 to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery and extortion.His decision to wear a wire and record Pawlowski for the FBI proved pivotal in the investigation. Prosecutors noted during Fleck’s sentencing that his close relationship with Pawlowski, then his best friend, enabled him to record conversations with the mayor that other cooperators could not.Sanchez called Fleck’s conduct “outrageous,” “extraordinarily troubling,” and “extraordinarily serious.”“He has no boundaries, no sense of ethics, no sense of what’s right or wrong,” Sanchez said.USP Hazelton, which is 260 miles from Allentown, houses 1,200 inmates — 1,087 at the penitentiary and 113 at the camp, according to the prison’s website.It is known for several violent incidents within its walls, most notably Bulger’s death in October. Bulger was brutally beaten with a padlock stuffed into a sock within hours of being transferred to the facility. Fotios Geas, a Mafia hit man from Massachusetts who is serving a life sentence at USP Hazelton, has been named as a suspect.In addition to his prison term, Fleck was sentenced to three years of probation. He owes $56,749 in restitution and $77,739 to the Internal Revenue Service.“I went down a bad path,” he told Sanchez during the sentencing hearing. “I regret it now. I regretted it, obviously, once we got caught.”Pawlowski is serving a 15-year prison sentence at a low security federal prison in Danbury, Conn.Morning Call reporter Emily Opilo can be reached at 610-820-6522 or eopilo@mcall.com.
Source: Morningcall