Mariano associate gets three years for bribery

Philip Chartock, the Philadelphia businessman convicted of bribing former city Councilman Rick Mariano, was sentenced yesterday to three years and four months in prison.

Chartock paid $23,000 worth of Mariano's credit-card bills in return for help with his business, Erie Steel. Those favors included Mariano's voting for tax breaks and intervening with pollution inspectors in 2002 and 2003. Chartock told the FBI he had lent Mariano the money.

"No one believes that these payments were loans - certainly the jury didn't and I don't," U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel said.

Stengel's sentence was about a year less than recommended under the advisory federal sentencing guidelines. It was about two years less than prosecutors had sought, and two years more than Chartock requested.

The judge said he believed that Chartock had been led astray by Mariano and that Chartock complied, in part, because he assumed he had to submit to the city's "culture of corruption."

But Stengel also noted that Chartock lied when confronted by an FBI agent, laundered two of the bribes through others, and later participated in a cover-up.

"Normally I don't buy into the notion that a sentence ought to send a message. . . . In the case involving public corruption, however, what the sentence says is significant because there are others out there wondering if they should pay to play," the judge said.

Chartock was convicted at trial last year of conspiracy, corruption, and money-laundering charges. His father, Louis Chartock, was convicted of similar charges and will be sentenced next month.

Mariano, who was convicted of bribery at a separate trial, is serving a six-year sentence.

Before he was sentenced yesterday, Philip Chartock told Stengel that although he was a good salesman, he was a poor businessman. "I think I was over my head," he said.

Chartock said he did not understand at the time that what he did was a federal crime. But he added, "I take responsibility."

His lawyer, Elizabeth Ainslie, called Chartock "one of the sweetest clients I have ever known. . . . He does not calculate what he is doing."

Chartock's good nature and trust of others probably contributed to his downfall, Ainslie said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Schwartz called the case "very simple and very serious."

"Mr. Chartock willingly paid bribes and played a prominent role in the pay-to-play culture in Philadelphia," Schwartz said.

Chartock bribed Mariano three times in 2002, the jury found.

The first was a $5,873 check paid directly to Mariano's credit-card company. At the time, city health inspectors were investigating Erie Steel for alleged pollution violations. Mariano intervened on behalf of Erie Steel, authorities said, using his influence to delay environmental affairs.

The second and third payments - $6,672 and $10,900 - were laundered through third parties. In early 2003, Mariano recommend that Erie Steel become included in a special economic zone that offered tax relief to businesses.

The whistleblower in the case was Erie Steel's bookkeeper, Maggie Greer. She approached authorities with allegations about Mariano after Chartock caught her embezzling $42,000 from his company.

Greer pleaded guilty in state court to a single theft charge. She did not serve any jail time.