Feds: Fumo does, indeed, owe $4M
Federal prosecutors yesterday tried to debunk disgraced former state Sen. Vince Fumo's argument that he should not have to forfeit $4 million to the government.
Federal prosecutors yesterday tried to debunk disgraced former state Sen. Vince Fumo's argument that he should not have to forfeit $4 million to the government.
The feds' court filing said that the defense was dead-wrong in its assertion that the feds' $4 million claim for forfeiture should be dismissed or at least limited to the $2 million amount originally sought in the indictment.
Fumo was found guilty on March 16 of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice after a five-month trial. (Prosecutors contended at trial that Fumo defrauded the state Senate and two nonprofits of more than $4 million by, among other offenses, using Senate staffers and nonprofit resources for personal or political gain.)
Fumo had argued in a court filing on April 20 that proceeds from his fraudulent schemes were not forfeitable because they were not "money" and because they had not been paid to Fumo or co-defendant Ruth Arnao. (Arnao was convicted of 45 fraud and obstruction counts; the feds want her to forfeit $1.4 million.)
The feds said that the argument "conspicuously overlooked" the fact that Congress intended that the applicable forfeiture law in mail-fraud cases be "liberally construed" to combat fraudulent schemes and deter others.
Prosecutors said that proceeds that must be forfeited include property obtained "directly or indirectly" as a result of the fraud, and includes both goods or services and benefits.
In a court filing on March 18, prosecutors listed 38 specific goods or services that Fumo or Arnao arranged to be purchased or paid for by the state Senate, by Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods and by the Independence Seaport Museum that, if the pair wanted them, they otherwise would have had to pay for them themselves.
Included in the feds' list were services for housecleaning and political campaign work performed by Senate aides, free yacht cruises and personal use of vehicles owned by Citizens Alliance, a nonprofit.
Prosecutors argued that these and other expenses would have been paid for by Fumo but for the fact that he defrauded the Senate, Citizens Alliance and the seaport museum, and that they "plainly represent" proceeds that Fumo directly or indirectly received.
They cited a landmark Third Circuit case in 2006 that upheld a money judgment for proceeds obtained directly or indirectly from a mail-fraud scheme.
The feds also said that Fumo's argument - that any forfeiture judgment be limited to $2 million because that's what the government sought in the indictment - lacked merit.
Prosecutors said in their court filing yesterday that the government's estimate of forfeiture in the indictment does not limit its ability to seek more if new information, such as that which was revealed at trial, becomes available.
And they scoffed at Fumo's claim that $4 million in forfeiture was excessive and unfair.
They noted that Fumo had declined a government proposal for a jury trial on forfeiture and insisted that the matter be resolved by a judge at a post-trial hearing.
At the hearing on March 18, the feds filed papers for $4 million in forfeiture by Fumo with accompanying detail, which they said was based on "copious trial evidence." *
