By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

An employee of Cincinnati Empowerment Corp. wants to start working for the agency again after a judge ruled Wednesday that he didn't know several cartons of cigarettes he bought were stolen.

Franco Wantsala, a staff accountant for Cincinnati Empowerment Corp., was one of 23 people indicted in October as part of an alleged theft ring that police say fenced stolen goods through corner markets.

He's since been on unpaid leave from the agency, which awards federal funds to corporations in Cincinnati's federally designated "empowerment zones" of poor neighborhoods.

Harold Cleveland, the agency's CEO, said Wednesday that he could not comment on Wantsala's job status because he had not seen the ruling.

"The not guilty finding shows him and others that the U.S. system is fair," said Wantsala's attorney, Ken Lawson. Wantsala, 45, is a native of Uganda.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Crush found Wantsala innocent on a charge of receiving stolen property.

Wantsala is the first of the 23 who have been acquitted. Five others have been convicted.

The 105-count indictment stemmed from an undercover investigation into how some local corner markets were stocking their shelves.

Police say the market owners made large profits by paying people 5 to 10 cents on the dollar for stolen goods that they would sell at inflated prices.

E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com