Ex-Newsday Exec Surrenders

NEW YORK — Louis Sito, a former business executive at Newsday and later a vice president of Tribune Co., surrendered to federal officials on charges related to his role in the newspaper’s circulation scandal.

Sito entered U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., by himself Friday and went to the pretrial services office, where officials determine whether a person who is about to be arraigned is eligible for bail. He declined to comment.

Sources familiar with the surrender said Sito was going to plead guilty at his arraignment to fraud charges and had agreed to cooperate with investigators.

Sito’s attorney, Judd Burstein of Manhattan, declined to comment. Burstein previously has denied that Sito did anything wrong.

William Muller, executive assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, also declined to comment.

Sito, 61, had been Newsday’s vice president of advertising and circulation and had founded Newsday’s sister Spanish-language paper, Hoy. Based on its apparent success, he had been promoted to vice president of Hispanic media for Tribune, owner of Newsday since 2000.

He retired two years ago after Tribune admitted that the circulations of both papers had been overstated.

The company, based in Chicago, has paid advertisers about $90 million in restitution. Tribune, which also owns the Los Angeles Times, said it was cooperating in the federal investigation.