MICHAEL FERNANDEZ / File Photograph
Lobbyist Stephen R. Wojdak (left) with Fumo in 2001. Verizon hired Wojdak for his Fumo connection, Daniel Whelan testified.
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Prosecutors: Fumo's actions went unquestioned
On the demand for legal work, Whelan tried to find a middle ground.
He refused to give any Verizon legal dollars to Dilworth, the firm that paid Fumo almost $1 million yearly to drum up business.
Whelan rejected Dilworth in the face of considerable pressure. "What's wrong with Dilworth?" Whelan testified that Wojdak kept asking.
"I just kept telling Steve, 'It isn't going to happen,' " Whelan recalled.
Whelan also turned down hiring Cozen O'Connor, another major Philadelphia firm, after learning it would split its fee with Fumo. He also rejected hiring the law firm of Richard A. Sprague, then a close Fumo comrade.
Finally, Verizon agreed to give $3 million of legal work to the Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel law firm of Philadelphia. The work was overseen by another Fumo ally, Obermayer lawyer Thomas A. Leonard, Whelan said.
Leonard, a former city controller, is an an old Fumo friend and political compatriot who lived a block from him on the same street in the Spring Garden section.
Like Cohen, he has not agreed to talk about Fumo.
And, like Cohen, Leonard was among the more than 250 people who sent the judge a letter urging leniency for the former state senator.
Contact staff writer Craig R. McCoy at 215-854-4821 or cmcoy@phillynews.com.
