The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania released the below information:
PHILADELPHIA – First Assistant United States
Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that former U.S. Congressman
Chaka Fattah (seen in the above photo), Sr., 62, of Philadelphia, PA was resentenced to 10 years of
incarceration by United States District Judge Harvey Bartle, III.
After
a month-long trial in 2016, a federal jury found defendant Fattah and various
co-defendants guilty of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, honest
services wire fraud conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy, and multiple counts of
mail fraud, falsification of records, mortgage fraud, and false statements to a
financial institution. The criminal conduct of Fattah and his
racketeering enterprise was organized around five corruption and fraud
schemes: a loan repayment scheme, a Blue Guardians scheme, a college
tuition scheme, a mortgage fraud scheme, and a fake conference scheme.
For his role in these schemes, Fattah was sentenced after trial to 10 years of
incarceration.
Both
parties appealed. With regard to Fattah’s appeal, the Court of Appeals
remanded for a new trial as to certain bribery and money laundering counts,
concluding that the jury had not been properly instructed regarding “official
acts” in a bribery context. (The government thereafter announced its
intention not to retry those counts.) With regard to the government’s
cross-appeal, the Court of Appeals reinstated certain counts that had been
dismissed by the District Court post-trial. The case was then
remanded for resentencing. Today, for these additional counts, Fattah was
again sentenced to 10 years of incarceration.
“Let
today serve as a warning to all public officials who allow greed or a thirst
for influence to overpower any desire to serve the community honestly,” said
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Williams. “If you are a corrupt official,
we will investigate and convict you, and we will remain steadfast behind our
prosecution until the last appeal is wrapped up and the final proceeding
complete. Today’s sentencing illustrates the strength of our original case
and the need to put Chaka Fattah behind bars for a very long time.”
The
case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal
Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the Department of Justice Office of
Inspector General, the NASA Office of Inspector General, the Department of
Education Office of Inspector General, the Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys
Eric L. Gibson and Paul L. Gray. Jonathan Kravis, former Trial Attorney
with the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of
Justice, also prosecuted this matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment