President Joe Biden on Thursday commuted the sentence of Gregory J. Podlucky, former chairman and CEO of a now defunct Latrobe beverage and bottling company who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2011 for his role in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Podlucky’s commutation was part of a larger action by Biden, who commuted sentences for about 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
It was the biggest single-day act of clemency in U.S. history.
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Podlucky, a former Ligonier resident, started LeNature’s Inc. in 1989.
He pleaded guilty about 13 years ago to swindling the company’s investors out of more than $629 million. Podlucky siphoned $37 million in loans that he spent on cars, precious gems, jewelry and toy trains.
Related:
• Podlucky: Revenge, not ‘raw greed,’ his motivation
• $1M settlement reached in LeNature’s case
• Podlucky mansion in Ligonier Township will go to sheriff’s sale
• Former Podlucky home renovated, listed at $670,000
Podlucky, three other LeNature executives, a former employee and a business associate were indicted by a grand jury in 2009 on charges of bank, wire and mail fraud. Podlucky was indicted for tax fraud and money laundering.
LeNature’s was forced into bankruptcy in 2006. A $1 million settlement was reached in the bankruptcy case in 2013.
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied Podlucky’s petition in 2017 to withdraw his guilty plea.
According to Federal Bureau of Prisons records, he most recently was being supervised by the Residential Reentry Management field office in Phoenix.
Podlucky’s Ligonier Township mansion was placed on the market for $670,000 in 2018. The 5,350-square-foot, Cape Cod-style home at the end of Sunrise Lane was purchased at an auction by New Jersey-based investment company Parei Ventures for $192,000.
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.
