Former Cuyahoga County auditor Frank Russo has died

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Frank Russo, the former auditor of Cuyahoga County who was sent to federal prison for his role in a corruption scandal, has died at the age of 72.

Russo’s longtime attorney, Roger Synenberg, confirmed his death to 19 News Saturday evening.

In May 2020, Russo was released from a North Carolina corrections facility due to COVID-19 concerns. He returned to northeast Ohio and was placed on house arrest with a GPS monitor.

RELATED: Frank Russo released from prison due to Covid-19 concerns

Russo was set to be released from federal supervision in 2024. He was initially sentenced to 22 years in 2012, but his sentence was later reduced to 15 years.

Russo was one of dozens of people, including several government officials, who were convicted in a corruption probe that broke wide open in July 2008, when the FBI raided the former auditor’s office.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons released the following information:

“We can confirm Frank P. Russo passed away on April 2, 2022, while on community confinement overseen by the Cincinnati Residential Reentry Management (RRM) office. The last Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility in which he was located was the Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) Butner.

For safety, security, and privacy reasons, this office does not share specifics regarding the cause of death for any inmate. The official cause of death is determined by the medical examiner and not the BOP.”