Lobbyist in Fattah case appears in court

A WEEK AFTER he was charged in an 85-page indictment with U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and three others, Herbert Vederman, a lobbyist and former deputy mayor, appeared in court yesterday before a federal magistrate.

A short, thin man with white hair, dressed in a dark suit and wearing glasses, Vederman, 69, did not speak during his brief appearance before Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter.

Upon agreement by prosecutor Eric Gibson, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and Vederman's attorney, Catherine Recker, Vederman, who has not been in custody, was released on a $100,000 personal-recognizance bond.

Afterward, Vederman declined to comment.

Recker told reporters outside the building that Vederman will face an arraignment at a later date. "Mr. Vederman will plead not guilty. We look forward to vindicating him at trial," she said.

Last week, when the indictment was handed down, Recker told reporters: "The government has cherry-picked facts to support its cynical view of friendship and wrongly labeled it bribery."

Vederman, of Palm Beach, Fla., faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, bribery, falsification of records, money laundering and related offenses.

Fattah, 58, an 11-term congressman who represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, faces a longer list of charges, including RICO conspiracy, fraud and bribery. He has maintained his innocence.

Vederman, who was a deputy mayor under Ed Rendell, served as finance director for Fattah's failed 2007 Philadelphia mayoral bid. He continued to act in that capacity "through at least December 2011 as he continued to negotiate the resolution" of outstanding debts stemming from Fattah's mayoral bid, the indictment says.

The indictment contends that from 2008 to 2012, Fattah, among other things, used his connections to try to get Vederman an ambassadorship or appointment to a federal trade commission.

In return, Vederman allegedly gave Fattah money, including an $18,000 bribe for a vacation home in the Poconos, and helped out in other ways, authorities contend.

Around August 2009, Vederman sponsored Fattah's live-in au pair, a South African native, for a student visa, and about March 2, 2010, he issued a check for $3,000 for the au pair's college tuition, the indictment says.

Then, about Jan. 13, 2012, Vederman wired $18,000 to Fattah so that Fattah and his wife could qualify for a mortgage on the purchase of a vacation home in the Poconos, the indictment alleges.

The indictment contends that Fattah and his wife, NBC 10 anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, "falsely styled the $18,000 transaction as a car sale" - that is, that she allegedly faked the sale of her 1989 convertible Porsche Carrera to Vederman to conceal the $18,000 payment.

She allegedly kept the Porsche.

Chenault-Fattah, labeled as "Person E" in the indictment, has not been charged in the case. She is on leave from the station. In a letter to her station, parts of which were posted on its website last Thursday, Chenault-Fattah, 57, denied any wrongdoing. "I know this was a legitimate sale, . . . " she wrote.

The indictment also says that about Jan. 19, 2012, just days after Vederman wired Fattah $18,000, Fattah hired Vederman's girlfriend to work in his Philly district office as a "special assistant to the Congressman."

The girlfriend, Alexandra Zionts, was only named in the indictment by her initials, A.Z. She is not charged in the case.

Gibson said in court yesterday that as part of Vederman's release, he is not to have contact with co-defendants and others in the case. But he said Vederman could communicate with Zionts.

The three others who were indicted last week were: Robert Brand, 69, of Philadelphia, a Fattah campaign contributor and founder of the consulting firm Solutions for Progress; Karen Nicholas, 57, of Williamstown, N.J., a former Fattah staffer and CEO of Educational Advancement Alliance, a Fattah-founded nonprofit; and Bonnie Bowser, 59, of Philadelphia, district chief of staff for Fattah and treasurer of his mayoral and congressional campaigns.

Bowser's attorney, Ronald H. Levine, said by email yesterday: "The charges against Ms. Bowser, a long-serving public employee, are unwarranted. She looks forward to vindication in a court of law." Brand's attorney, Barry Gross, said: "Mr. Brand looks forward to his day in court to contest his charges." Levine and Gross said their clients' initial appearances in court would be Aug. 18.

Fattah's attorney, Luther Weaver III, previously told the Associated Press Fattah's initial appearance would be Aug. 18. Yesterday, Weaver, in an email to the Daily News, said he "was wrong" about that date. He said Fattah's "initial appearance has yet to be set."