Fattah Jr.'s ex-girlfriend recalls his spending habits

THE FORMER girlfriend of Chaka Fattah Jr., who lived with him at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, yesterday recalled his "exorbitant" spending habits.

"He liked to maintain a certain lifestyle and things that came with that," Elizabeth Ashley Douglas told jurors at her former beau's federal trial. "He dressed nicely. He would buy suits from Boyds, Cole Haan shoes."

Douglas dated Fattah for "a little under four years," she said. Their relationship ended in February 2012.

Fattah, 32, the son of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah Sr., the Democratic congressman who represents parts of Philly and Montgomery County, is accused of defrauding several banks, the IRS and the Philadelphia School District.

The son is not a lawyer and did not graduate college, but is representing himself at his trial.

According to the 23-count indictment, from 2005 to 2012, Fattah improperly used bank loans to fund his lavish lifestyle and made false statements to financial institutions and the IRS.

Douglas said she met Fattah while working at a real-estate company run by a man named Joel Harden. Fattah worked as a consultant for Harden in 2008 and 2009, helping him try to sell a real-estate board game.

After Douglas left Harden's company, she worked for Fattah Sr. According to her LinkedIn page, she was a special assistant and scheduler for the congressman from July 2009 to May 2015.

Douglas and Fattah Jr. first lived together for about two years in Old City, on Bank Street, near Market, before moving to the Ritz-Carlton in December 2011.

Fattah liked to spend money, Douglas testified under questioning by prosecutor Eric Gibson, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice.

"We had challenges meeting our monthly expenses at times" and would argue, she said.

Asked about his income taxes, Douglas said they weren't Fattah's priority. "I did know they weren't paid," she said, adding: "He would say he would eventually take care of them."

Testimony by other witnesses in the trial has shown that Fattah had filed income-tax returns, but the government alleges he didn't report all of his income or was delinquent on his tax obligations.

Fattah began working in 2009 with the Delaware Valley High School, a for-profit company that received money from the school district to run alternative schools for at-risk kids, making $75,000 a year as a grant writer.

He then negotiated contracts through his 259 Strategies consulting company to work as a consultant for DVHS, increasing his compensation at the end of 2010 to $450,000 a year, according to government documents.

Gibson asked Douglas about a time in 2011 when Fattah lost his gig with DVHS.

"He had missed an obligation to pay some salaries," Douglas said.

Asked by Gibson what Fattah did with the money, Douglas replied: "My understanding was it was gambled away."

DVHS' owner, David Shulick, rehired Fattah, but with a substantial pay cut, Douglas said. She said it "was advantageous" for Shulick to have Fattah as a contractor because 259 Strategies was a minority contractor.

Under cross-examination, Fattah politely asked his ex-girlfriend if he had a "wide variety of priorities," not just spending money on himself. He noted he had his mother's kitchen rebuilt and had given money to a relative of hers who came here from Puerto Rico.

Douglas agreed his priorities were varied.

Fattah also noted that when he had borrowed money from her, he paid her back and that he had paid bills. She agreed.

Fattah also brought up parties they held at their apartments - one, a Super Bowl party, in which 50 people came and they got catering from Buddakan.

"Do you recall we had lamb chops and Chilean sea bass?"

"Yes," Douglas replied.

Fattah noted at that time he could afford the Buddakan catering because he was making about $15,000 a month.

Douglas agreed, but called the $1,800 catering "exorbitant."

Gibson asked Douglas if it was also at that time "you were arguing about taxes not being paid?"

"Yes," she testified.

Earlier yesterday, Gregory Naylor, 67, former chief of staff to Congressman Fattah, testified that he had sent checks to Drexel University and Sallie Mae, the student-loan company, to pay for Fattah Jr.'s tuition at Drexel.

"Who asked you to do it?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray.

"His father," Naylor said, referring to the congressman.

In August 2014, Naylor pleaded guilty, in part, to paying down about $22,000 in college debt owed by Fattah Jr. using federal and local campaign funds, but disguising the payments as work that Fattah Jr. did as a contractor for Naylor's consulting firm, Sydney Lei & Associates.

Asked by Gray if Fattah Jr. had done any work for Sydney Lei, Naylor said no.

Under cross-examination, Fattah asked Naylor about conversations they had in which Fattah talked about marketing ideas for Sydney Lei. He contended there was value in those talks and they could qualify as "work."

"Let me phrase it this way," Naylor testified. "We had conversations about Sydney Lei, but it ended up just being conversations."

On Twitter: @julieshawphilly