The Staten Island principal exposed as a car-insurance cheat by The Post has pleaded guilty to insurance fraud.
Oneatha Swinton, who was interim acting principal of Port Richmond HS, registered her luxury 🌠cars at the Pennsylvania home of a city vendor and former NYC principal she had hired — a scheme first revealed by The Po෴st last year.
Originally charged with six felony counts and one misdemeanor, Swinton pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor in a deal with the Pennsylvani🦄a Attorney General, a spokesperson said.
She was sentencedꦚ to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $6,200 in restitution plus an $80๊0 fine.
Swinton was removed from Port Richmond in June, days after the Pennsylvania AG chཧarged her an🐭d the vendor, Tanya John.
But ⭕she has remained on the city Department of Education payroll, collecting her $161,871-a-year salary, pending the criminal case. She reports to “a central office,” the DOE said.
Swinton, 40, a Staten Island resident, obtained a Pennsylvania driver’s license in 2014 using John’s East Strou🐷dsburg, PA, address. She registered a Lexus SUV to that address, later replacing it w꧙ith a newer Lexus.
She saved about $3,000 in car-insurance premiums, because ra𓄧tes are much lower in rural East Stroudsburg than in NYC. She also filed two claims for damages in New York fender-benܫders that cost her insurer $2,247, records show.
John, 44, is CEO of Feetz LLC, whicꦫh Swinton hired to tutor studentsꦏ and run “character development” programs.
Feetz has collected more than $1.3 million from city schools since 2012 and won several new contracts since the insurance scheme was exposed — raking in $33,170 since October.
In the fraud case, John,🗹 who is married to a DOE teacher, was ordered to pay a $500 fine, and remain on probation for 19 months. Afterward, her records in the case may be expunged. She did not pᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚlead guilty.
“When people commit insurance fraud, it causes premiums to rise for the folks who follow the rules,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement to The Post. “It’s wrong, and this sentencing and admission of guilt proves there will be conseqไuences for this dishonest activity.”
Port Richmond parents, staffers and students had complained about Swinton’s management, charging that she de-funded popular programs and spent $400,000 to hire f𒁏riends.
Andrew Greenfield, a Port Richmond assistant principal since 2001, was n🐎amed interim acting principal upon Swinton’s ouster.
The Special Commis൩sioner of Investigation for NYC schools is sꦰtill actively probing Swinton, sources said.