State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo used taxpayer and charity money to pay for everything from political polls to power tools, from cars to farm equipment, from errands to shopping sprees, a grand jury charged yesterday.

Among the more than $2 million in allegedly illicit spending: Fumo (D., Phila.) hired private detectives to tail ex-girlfriends and dig up dirt on political rivals - including Gov. Rendell.

"Sen. Fumo didn't just step over the line," U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan said yesterday. "He completely ignored it."

The grand jury indictment - 267 pages, 139 counts, carrying a possible 10-year prison sentence - came out one day after Fumo delivered a dramatic speech in the Senate in which he dismissed the pending charges as "falsities and half-truths."

Yesterday, Fumo was silent. Today, he will be fingerprinted and appear before a federal magistrate. Tomorrow, his lawyers have promised to hold a news conference to discuss the charges.

Fumo, 63, who has served as senator since 1978, was depicted by Meehan as a "greedy, manipulative" politician angling for ways to make the public and charities pay for his lavish lifestyle.

The indictment says Fumo once told a confidant that he had an acronym for one goal in his life - spending "OPM," that is, "other people's money."

"Because he was delivering large amounts of money to his Philadelphia constituents with one hand," Meehan said, "Vincent Fumo felt entitled to reach deeply into the pockets of Pennsylvania taxpayers with the other hand."

Fumo is charged with fraud, conspiracy, and with directing a cover-up - ordering computers scrubbed of e-mails after The Inquirer broke the news that the FBI was investigating him.

The indictment says Fumo exploited his Senate budget and power; the South Philadelphia charity he helped fund, Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods; and the Independence Seaport Museum for his personal and political use.

Grand jurors said Fumo:

Funneled more than $60,000 from the charity into an effort to block a dune-rebuilding project in South Jersey. The indictment says Fumo feared the project would ruin the ocean view at his Margate home.

Assigned one Senate aide to work for 18 months as "project manager" overseeing renovations at Fumo's 33-room mansion in Spring Garden, and paid another aide to clean the house.

Put other taxpayer-paid aides to work organizing political fund-raisers; putting together campaign mailings; paying Fumo's personal bills; driving Fumo's daughter to schools; driving his shirts to be laundered; fixing his TV; and packing boxes of Fumo bobblehead dolls.

Doled out fat state contracts to political consultants and others who did little or no state work.

Repeatedly cruised on museum yachts at a cost to the museum of more than $100,000. One trip included a $2,539 bill for a French meal.

Fumo was a driving force behind the funding for Citizens', striking deals with Peco Energy under which the power company gave the charity $17 million.

No criminal charges were brought in connection with Fumo's interaction with Peco. At a news conference yesterday, Meehan said the destruction of e-mails by Fumo staff likely meant the full story of the Peco donation would remain unknown.

Yesterday's indictment also claimed Fumo sought $100 million from Verizon, of which $15 million was to go to Citizens' Alliance. The communications company refused to put up any money.

Also charged in the indictment was Ruth Arnao, 51, former executive director of Citizens' Alliance and one of Fumo's closest friends. She was charged with 45 criminal counts and was said to have taken part in the fraud and obstruction. Her lawyer, Edwin J. Jacobs Jr., declined to comment yesterday.

Two former computer technicians on Fumo's staff, Leonard P. Luchko, 50; and Mark Eister, 30, were previously indicted on such obstruction charges - and now will go on trial with Fumo and Arnao. U.S. District Judge William Yohn had scheduled that trial for May, but yesterday's superceding indictment is likely to trigger a delay.

In another count in the new filing, Fumo is charged with aiding Arnao in filing a false tax return to the IRS on behalf of Citizens' Alliance in 2002.

On the tax form she signed, Arnao pledged that the charity had not been used for political purposes. It is illegal for nonprofit organizations to engage in political activity.

In part, the indictment levels charges that have previously surfaced. As has been reported, it noted that Citizens' Alliance spent $250,000 to pay for political polls and also secretly financed a lawsuit against a foe of Fumo's in the state Senate.

One new allegation is that Fumo had detectives trying to dig up dirt on Rendell, city union leader John Dougherty, and Fumo's ex-wife and former girlfriends.

Detectives researched Rendell's purchase of a home in Ocean City, N.J., the indictment says.

At the time of the detective work, Fumo was supporting another candidate for governor.

One expert in Pennsylvania politics said the spying was "political dynamite" that, more than anything else, could cost Fumo support among his fellow legislators.

"In all my years of studying and writing about state government I have never heard anything that even remotely sounds like this," said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster and analyst at Franklin and Marshall College. "It's mind-boggling."

Rendell declined through a spokeswoman to comment.

"He won't comment. No way. Nice try," spokeswoman Kate Philips said.

Also new was the indictment's wholesale portrait of Fumo as an imperial boss who used Senate and charity workers as personal errand boys and girls.

Fumo had Citizens' Alliance employees at "his beck and call" to handle chores, the indictment says. Senate staffers, too, were available to "serve him in any manner he desired . . . to further his political goals and attend to his personal wants."

When Fumo bought a working farm near Harrisburg, state workers were assigned to set it up. While holding down a Senate job, these staffers allegedly bought feed for horses, hired hands to mend fences, and pondered the precise breed of goat to buy.

To underscore what they called Fumo's greed, prosecutors took pains to highlight his considerable wealth.

Aside from his substantial income as a banker, Fumo has served as "of counsel" to the prominent Philadelphia law firm Dilworth Paxson. The indictment revealed Dilworth paid Fumo "as much as $1 million per year."

The indictment also cites Fumo's mansion in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia; a beach-block home in Margate, N.J; a bayside condo in Ventnor, N.J.; a 100-acre farm outside Harrisburg; and a multi-million-dollar house in Florida.

The indictment reads in part like a catalog of Fumo's wide-ranging passions and love of gadgets. It says Citizens' Alliance spent more than $75,000 buying tools that ended up in Fumo's four houses.

A licensed electrician, Fumo liked having the same set of tools in each house, the indictment says.

According to the indictment, $6,500 went to buy 19 Oreck vacuum cleaners - one for each floor of his four houses.

Citizens' Alliance spent $600,000 to refurbish and furnish Fumo's legislative office in South Philadelphia. The charity owned the building housing the legislative office but collected only $18,000 a year in rent for it.

The indictment says the charity's money was also tapped for shopping sprees. Fumo and Arnao would meet at Sam's Club, Home Depot and Lowe's outlets near Atlantic City to "stock up on thousands of dollars of goods for their summer residences."

Grand jurors said the pair used Citizens' Alliance credit cards for such purchases as $3,900 in mosquito magnets and a $450 meat grinder destined for use on the Harrisburg-area farm.

The indictment said a charity minivan was regularly driven by Senate employees to Martha's Vineyard to be used by Fumo, Arnao and their friends on summer vacations. His Senate drivers did Fumo's personal shopping, drove his daughter to school, and regularly delivered packages.

And Fumo, who held no official title with the nonprofit, allegedly received a $55,000 SUV for his use.

Though he is one of only five state senators from Philadelphia, Fumo has long had an outsize impact on policy in the Capitol and in Philadelphia.

He is renowned and at times feared for his smarts, his mastery of the art of the deal, his network of appointees and allies, and his ability to build effective political coalitions.

Yesterday's indictment marks the third time Fumo has been criminally charged.

In 1973, five years before he became a senator, he was arrested on charges of voter intimidation, but the charges were quickly withdrawn.

In 1980, a federal jury convicted him of putting "ghost" employees on the state payroll, but a judge threw out the conviction.

Fumo has promised a vigorous fight to clear his name one more time.

"If there is anyone who has shown the capabilities of overcoming legal and ethical challenges, it's Vince Fumo," said Chris Borick, a professor of politics at Muhlenberg College.

"But I can see no obvious way that he can come out from under this one. From a political sense, these are some really deep scars that have been inflicted upon him."

Mayor Street said Fumo would "remain an influential force for Philadelphia," even though Fumo has stepped down from his key post as minority chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"My thoughts and concerns now are with Sen. Fumo and his family," Street said in a statement.

Founded in 1991 by Arnao and two others with ties to Fumo, Citizens' Alliance has helped charter schools, rehabbed storefronts in South Philadelphia, televised the Mummers, and helped fight AIDS.

Though the probe that resulted in yesterday's indictment began in 2003, investigators started focusing on Citizens' Alliance in 2004 after The Inquirer reported that Peco had secretly agreed to give the charity $17 million and reduce its rates as part of a legal settlement with Fumo, who had opposed the utility's business plans.

The paper also disclosed that Fumo had arranged for the Delaware River Port Authority to give $10 million to Citizens' Alliance. The port authority is largely funded through bridge tolls and the PATCO commuter train.

Citizens' Alliance also has received more than $4 million in state and other government grants.

The indictment says Fumo also asked Verizon to steer $2.5 million in legal business to Dilworth Paxson. A partner in the law firm could not be reached for comment last night.

If convicted, Fumo likely faces at least two years in prison, though he could be sentenced to 10 years or more if he is found guilty of the most serious charges, including conspiracy to defraud state taxpayers.

Fumo is scheduled to surrender to the FBI agents this morning who investigated him, Kathleen McAfee and Vicki Humphreys.

At 1:30 p.m., he is to appear briefly for arraignment with his lawyer before a federal magistrate and prosecutors John Pease and Robert Zauzmer. Fumo has already made routine bail arrangements, including surrendering his passport and firearms. Fumo owns a collection of more than 100 weapons.

To accommodate the expected media and political interest, today's arraignment has been moved from the small magistrate courtroom to a larger one. There, Fumo and Arnao will appear with other people federally charged yesterday - including an accused bank robber and a fugitive from justice.