PA Democrat Chaka Fattah Charged With Racketeering
“A wide-ranging conspiracy.”
Chaka Fattah, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s second district, has been charged with racketeering conspiracy alongside four other people in a case that smacks of influence peddling.
The Department of Justice announced the charges yesterday:
Congressman Chaka Fattah and Associates Charged with Participating in Racketeering Conspiracy
A member of Congress and four of his associates were indicted today for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy involving several schemes that were intended to further the political and financial interests of the defendants and others by, among other tactics, misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal, charitable and campaign funds.
Congressman Chaka Fattah Sr., 58, of Philadelphia; lobbyist Herbert Vederman, 69, of Palm Beach, Florida; Fattah’s Congressional District Director Bonnie Bowser, 59, of Philadelphia; and Robert Brand, 69, of Philadelphia; and Karen Nicholas, 57, of Williamstown, New Jersey, were charged today in a 29-count indictment with participating in a racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including bribery; conspiracy to commit mail, wire and honest services fraud; and multiple counts of mail fraud, falsification of records, bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution and money laundering.
Naturally, Fattah denies the charges:
The DOJ, on the other hand, seems fairly confident in their case:
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Hanko of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division and Special Agent in Charge Akeia Conner of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Philadelphia Field Office made the announcement.
“As charged in the indictment, Congressman Fattah and his associates embarked on a wide-ranging conspiracy involving bribery, concealment of unlawful campaign contributions and theft of charitable and federal funds to advance their own personal interests,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “When elected officials betray the trust and confidence placed in them by the public, the department will do everything we can to ensure that they are held accountable. Public corruption takes a particularly heavy toll on our democracy because it undermines people’s basic belief that our elected leaders are committed to serving the public interest, not to lining their own pockets.”
Here’s Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell announcing the charges described above:
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
I wonder how many #BlackLivesMatter demonstrators will support this criminal?
I’m shocked. He’s been getting away with this for so many years, thought he was immune to justice. There’s lots to prosecute.
There may be others out there *coughHillarycough* who believe themselves immune from prosecution, who have also pissed off Obama.
Must of pissed off obama
Yes, like Melendez did in NJ. But I don’t know how. There has to be a black political power struggle back story, I’d think.
Innocent.
This is white privilege at work.
He’s being charged only “’cause he’s black”.
Despite what we sometimes fall into thinking…and heaven knows with ample reason…
there are still good, honest, hard-working people in law enforcement and prosecution.
I was “Chaka-ed” to learn that his parents are community organizers.
Andrew, I have become used to these types of threads having links to actual documents. Alas, no indictment to read on this one. Are you slipping or am I being unreasonable?
(Psst… It’s a post by Aleister. Different guy. Different style.)
Chakka Con?