Fumo's defense puts accountant on stand
Lawyers for former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo yesterday put an accountant on the stand to challenge the prosecution's contention that Fumo dipped into state grants to buy himself tools and other consumer goods.
Lawyers for former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo yesterday put an accountant on the stand to challenge the prosecution's contention that Fumo dipped into state grants to buy himself tools and other consumer goods.
The accountant, Donna Busby, told the federal jury in Fumo's corruption trial that private donations to a nonprofit had more than reimbursed any state grant money spent on the senator's behalf.
Busby was the only witness yesterday as the defense neared the end of its case. There is no court session today, and on Monday Gov. Rendell is scheduled to take the stand, possibly to be followed by Fumo.
Rendell is expected to say Fumo and his aides were well-known in Harrisburg for their long work hours. Defense lawyers hope the governor's testimony will help rebut the prosecution allegation that the senator shortchanged taxpayers by having his staff do personal and political work on state time.
Dennis J. Cogan, the leader of Fumo's defense team, declined yesterday to say whether his client will follow the governor on the stand.
In another part of the complex Fumo indictment, the government alleges he fraudulently extracted $1.4 million in benefits from a South Philadelphia nonprofit, Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.
Prosecutors contend that Fumo got as much as $200,000 in consumer goods from Citizens' Alliance, including about $65,000 in items paid for from state grants Fumo lined up for the organization.
The defense has acknowledged that Fumo got consumer goods priced at tens of thousands of dollars, but it says the money to buy them ultimately came from private sources.
They concede that state grant money was used on occasion to cover purchases for Fumo, but say the money was always made whole using private donations.
Defense lawyers say it was lawful for Fumo to get the items as compensation for raising nongovernment donations for the nonprofit. Acting as both an elected official and a private citizen, Fumo in 1998 and 2000 pressured Peco Energy to give $17 million to Citizens' Alliance.
Prosecutors contend it was illegal for Fumo to take any such compensation from the nonprofit. But they have also argued that Fumo added injury to insult by helping himself to money unquestionably obtained via his role as a public official.
By following a paper trail of store receipts, credit-card records and bank statements, FBI Agents Vicki Humphreys and Brian Nichilo determined that the nonprofit had paid for about $65,000 in consumer goods for Fumo directly from checking accounts that held about $2 million in state grants.
But Busby countered that Citizens' Alliance had dipped into the Peco millions to transfer about $200,000 into the checking accounts holding the state money. Her bottom line: Those accounts were a net winner, even after subtracting money spent on Fumo.
Under cross-examination, Busby acknowledged to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Zauzmer that nothing in the nonprofit's files indicated that the the purpose of the incoming transfers was to reimburse the accounts for the spending on Fumo.
