Fumo sentencing set for July 13, as Feds go after $4M in forfeitures

Vince Fumo will remain a free man for at least four more months.

A federal judge tentatively scheduled sentencing for the convicted former state senator for July 13. Prosecutors are expected to ask for a sentence of more than 10 years behind bars for the disgraced pol.

Sentencing for co-defendant Ruth Arnao, a former Fumo Senate aide who once headed the nonprofit Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, would be a week later. She potentially faces several years in prison.

Fumo was convicted by a federal jury on Monday of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and related offenses. Arnao was found guilty on 45 counts.

In court papers outlining their case for forfeiture, prosecutors said in a court filing yesterday that Fumo bilked taxpayers and two nonprofits of more than $4 million, and Arnao fleeced Citizens Alliance of almost $1.5 million, and that they should have to pay back their illicit gains in cash.

Prosecutors said that the requested amounts factor in sums previously repaid to the victims, such as $250,000 in prohibited political-polling expenses that Citizens Alliance paid for on behalf of Fumo.

Federal law permits forfeiture of proceeds obtained through fraud. (A hearing on the matter was scheduled for this morning.)

Fumo argued in court papers last week that the feds were not entitled to a money judgment because there was no evidence presented at trial that he received any money as a result of his offenses.

The feds' filing explains how prosecutors calculated the estimated losses attributed to the fraudulent schemes.

For example, Senate staffer Lisa Costello was assigned to clean Fumo's house one day a week for two years. The feds said the $11,145 loss figure for Costello represented 20 percent (one work day per week) of her Senate income in 2000 and 2001.

The feds also filed notices of pending liens on some real estate owned by Fumo and Arnao.

The pending liens, which secure the government's claims on the properties pending a forfeiture ruling by the court, were slapped on three condos that Fumo owns in Ventnor, N.J.; on a home in Margate, N.J.; on a farm in Halifax, Dauphin County; and on his 27-room Spring Garden mansion and a home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Pending liens were also placed on Arnao's home on Green Street, a condo in Ventnor and an apartment in Aventura, Fla.

The properties could be used to satisfy any money judgment that the court orders if Fumo and Arnao can't come up with cash.

Fumo lawyer Dennis Cogan said Monday at a bail hearing that Fumo had been trying to sell both his Spring Garden digs and the Fort Lauderdale home he bought for more than $2 million in March 2005.

The notices of pending liens likely means that it will be more difficult for Fumo to sell the properties. (The properties are currently being used to secure Fumo's $2 million bail while he awaits sentencing.)

A pending lien doesn't preclude somebody from purchasing a property, but it does mean that a buyer might have to relinquish the property to the feds if the court finds that it must be forfeited as a substitute asset in lieu of cash. *