Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, already under grand jury investigation for allegedly leaking confidential information to the press and then lying about it under oath, could face new probes after a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer indicating she helped quash a background investigation of Louis DeNaples, the Scranton businessman who won the license to build the Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Pocono Mountains region.
DeNaples relinquished his license to a trust controlled by his daughter as part of a deal under which the state dropped perjury charges against him. Those charges involved DeNaples’ statements under oath that he had no ties to a reputed Scranton mob figure with whom he had done business in the past. DeNaples has consistently denied the charges.
The Inquirer cited unnamed sources in reporting that Kane, a Scranton native herself, revoked subpoenas that had already been issued to DeNaples and other politically powerful figures in northeastern Pennsylvania. The newspaper quoted an anonymous source as saying the subpoenas were connected to Donald Shiffer, a former assistant counsel of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board suspected of serving “as a spy for DeNaples, feeding him information about the review of his bid to win a casino license.”
Kane revoked the subpoenas shortly after taking office in early 2013, and five months later, DeNaples contributed $25,000 to Kane’s campaign fund, the report said. Shiffer had followed DeNaples to Mount Airy in 2008, becoming the casino’s general counsel.
Neither Kane nor any official from the gaming board has commented on the report.
