Fumo Indicted on 139 Counts

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - February 6, 2007 -- State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, one of the most powerful figures in Pennsylvania politics, was indicted Tuesday on charges that he defrauded the state Senate out of $1 million, used a nonprofit group for personal and political gain, and conspired with his staff to engage in an elaborate coverup.

The 267-page indictment comes more than four years after federal authorities began investigating the Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a group started by Fumo aides in 1991 to serve the South Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said Fumo used Senate employees for his personal benefit and abused his authority to hire Senate contractors.

"He allegedly hired with Senate funds a private investigator, a former police officer, to follow his ex-wife and girlfriends on dates, and to dig up dirt on political rivals," Meehan said in a statement.

Fumo, anticipating the indictment on Monday, temporarily stepped down as the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee but remains in the Senate.

The Philadelphia Democrat, who has beaten two previous indictments, vowed to again clear his name.

"I know in my heart that I have not done anything illegal," Fumo, a 63-year-old lawyer and banker, said Monday.

But prosecutors on Tuesday said the Senate lost more than $1 million as Fumo "systematically, routinely, and improperly used the funds and resources of the Senate for his personal and political benefit."

"He directed that Senate employees and contractors employed by the Senate serve him in any manner he desired, throughout the regular workday and at all hours of the day and night, to further his political goals and attend to his personal wants," prosecutors said.

The indictment says employees helped set up a farm that Fumo bought near Harrisburg and did computer work for Fumo's campaign.

Other charges stem from Fumo's ties to the Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods. Prosecutors said Fumo used more than $1 million of the group's funds for personal and political uses, including to secretly pay for a lawsuit against one of his political rivals.

The nonprofit's money was also used to pay for political polling and to fight a planned dune project along the New Jersey shore, where Fumo has a home, prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges the agency's longtime executive director, Ruth Arnao, engaged in extensive obstruction of the federal probe. It also names two ex-Senate staffers, who have already been charged with obstructing the investigation by deleting years worth of e-mail about Fumo's ties to the charity from office and other computers.

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