In 2003, the FBI and IRS began investigating State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo. The agencies scrutinized his finances, his use of legislative staff and whether he illegally exploited a South Philadelphia charity. When the four-year federal probe concluded, Fumo - one of the most powerful politicians in Pennsylvania - was charged with fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
LATEST STORY
Federal prosecutors asked a judge late yesterday to throw out defense subpoenas for law school application records of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's son-in-law, saying it was an "improper fishing expedition" to get personal records of a government witness.
PROFILE
Friends of Sen. Vincent J. Fumo say he is brilliant and could have been anything - a surgeon, maybe - but he became a politician so he could help more people.
SLIDE SHOW
A look back at Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's career - from campaigning in 1978 to his retirement announcement on March 12.
FUMO SPEECH / INDICTMENT
During a 12-minute speech Feb. 5, 2007 on the Senate floor, state Sen. Vincent Fumo told his colleagues that "I know in my heart that I have not done anything illegal."
Audio of speech
Audio of speech
The 267-page indictment issued Feb. 6, 1007, charges State Sen. Vincent Fumo with 139 counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and filing false tax returns.
The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the indictment against the senator and three of his aides in a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007.
Audio of press conference.
Audio of press conference.
AUDIO
State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's lawyer attacked the U.S. attorney's motives yesterday and called the 139 charges against his client nothing more than a malicious effort by the Bush administration to drive powerful Democrats from office.
Click here to listen to the audio.
Click here to listen to the audio.
- State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's decision not to seek reelection after 30 years in office blows wide open the Democratic primary race for his seat.
- My father - Vince Fumo Sr. - suffered from leukemia and passed away in 1992, shortly after my mother had died of complications from a broken hip. God bless them both. I always miss them, but on days like this I miss them the most.
- The president of Verizon Pennsylvania struck a secret "gentleman's agreement" with State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo under which the phone company agreed to pay millions to a law firm of Fumo's choosing, according to court testimony yesterday.
- At a federal court hearing Monday, prosecutors and the FBI disclosed new details about an agreement between Verizon and State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.).
- Some experts don't agree with the prosecutors' answer: Pa.'s Vincent J. Fumo and N.J.'s Wayne R. Bryant are greedy.The region's two recently indicted state senators were - and are - rich and powerful men. The personal wealth of Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, a banker, lawyer and licensed electrician, has been estimated at $20 million, and his stock and options from the bank his grandfather founded are worth an additional $13 million.
- In a motion, prosecutors say Sprague & Sprague has also represented organizations the senator is accused of defrauding.Prosecutors said yesterday that State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's lawyer, Richard A. Sprague, has a likely conflict of interest because he also represented the alleged victims in the case - and could even be called as a witness himself at next year's trial.
- He has been what lawyers call a "rainmaker." He's lined up government and corporate clients for a Philadelphia law firm that pays him well for this - as much as $1 million a year.
- In the junkyard-dog realm of South Philadelphia politics, paranoia is just self-preservation. So it probably made sense to think dirty tricks were afoot when workers for a charity linked to State Sen. Vincent Fumo took trash bags from curbside at the homes of John Dougherty, business manager of electricians' Local 98, and the union's president, Harry Foy, on the morning of March 16.
- Who pays nearly $100 for a gallon of white paint? Of all the things that recently indicted State Sen. Vincent Fumo's Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods allegedly purchased with public and donated funds, it's the paint that has people shaking their heads.
- Vince Fumo's downfall was caused by excessive excess. It was not simply greed, but an arrogance born of power.I got to page 100 in the Vince Fumo indictment before I was stopped short. It was the tiki torches that did it.
- In the interest of fairness, I have been asked by no less a legal legend than Richard Sprague to allow State Sen. Vince Fumo the opportunity to tell his side of the story.
- No one knows what effect Fumo's indictment will have. As a campaign weapon, it could backfire.Bob Brady was reveling in the moment. It was early Friday afternoon, and he had just been endorsed for mayor by the ward leaders who compose the Democratic City Committee.
- 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.
- HARRISBURG - In a preemptive strike on the eve of his likely indictment, a defiant State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo took the fight to federal prosecutors yesterday, vowing to contest charges he called "falsities and half-truths."
- Fumo likes to sail. He's a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the U.S. Power Squadrons, the American Professional Captains Association, and the Ocean City Marlin and Tuna Club.
- Accused State. Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's lead attorney denounced the federal charges against his client yesterday, calling them "weak" and politically motivated.
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- Alluding to "certain allegations" and maintaining his innocence, the Phila. Democrat resigned from the board of the Independence Seaport Museum.State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo has resigned from the board of the Independence Seaport Museum, saying he is innocent of charges of defrauding the Philadelphia museum out of more than $100,000 in luxury yacht trips for himself, family members and friends.
- In early 2003, Fumo bought a $515,000 farm north of Harrisburg. He stocked it with horses, goats, crops, Senate employees and goodies from Citizens' Alliance: a bulldozer (and multiple repairs to it), an all-terrain vehicle, a tractor and a pickup truck.
- Four years ago, The Inquirer began digging into a little-known South Philadelphia charity. The paper reported that the charity was flush with millions of dollars in donations and that State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, its main backer, refused to say where the money had come from.
- A sweeping indictmentAmong the many dubious perks that federal prosecutors allege state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo engineered through his Pennsylvania Senate office and a Philadelphia community nonprofit was the free use of a bulldozer at Fumo's farm near Harrisburg.
- A den of enablersThe muted reaction in Harrisburg over the indictment of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo says a lot about what the market is willing to bear in the state capital.
- The federal probe has focused on his ties to a South Phila. charity.The four-year investigation of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is coming to an end, and lawyers familiar with the case expect him to be indicted soon, possibly as early as Tuesday.
- State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo and a former Senate aide surrendered to the FBI today and pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate judge to scores of fraud charges.
- State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's lawyer attacked the U.S. attorney's motives yesterday and called the 139 charges against his client nothing more than a malicious effort by the Bush administration to drive powerful Democrats from office.
- State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo defrauded a multimillion-dollar charity, used Senate staff for personal and political errands, and engaged in a cover-up after the FBI and IRS began to investigate him, a grand jury charged today.
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