Councilwoman's former campaign manager charged with fraud
Councilwoman's former campaign manager accused of stealing $100,000 from her 2011 campaign.
Councilwoman's former campaign manager charged with fraud
John D. McDaniel, the former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, was charged with wire fraud Wednesday for alleging stealing about $100,000 from Brown’s campaign.
The charges were filed by U. S. Attorney Zane David Memeger in an information.
After working on Brown’s 2011 reelection campaign, McDaniel was hired by the Nutter administration and put into an airport patronage job, but he was fired last week after the city Board of Ethics documented scores of irregularities in Brown’s campaign finance reports.
The use of an information to file the charges means that McDaniel waived his right to have the case presented to a grand jury. It is usually a sign that the defendant intends to plead guilty and, sometimes, to cooperate with prosecutors in pursuing other potential defendants.
It is not clear what that means for Brown, who has acknowledged using campaign funds to repay a $3,300 loan from Chaka “Chip” Fattah Jr., son of the Congressman by the same name, in December 2010, as well as putting $1,400 in campaign contributions into her personal account in May 2011.
The Councilwoman repaid $3,300 to her campaign account from personal funds last April 11 – about 16 months after the campaign’s payment to Fattah Jr., and after it became clear from newspaper stories that the feds were looking into Fattah Jr.’s financial affairs.
The committee’s payment to Fattah was disguised in campaign finance reports as a payment to a printing firm. Brown told The Inquirer this week that was McDaniel’s idea, that she had expected the payment to be listed as going to Fattah Jr., but she signed her campaign finance reports without ever checking how the payment had been described.
The charges against McDaniel, 39, are punishable by a maximum sentence of 30 years in jail and a $250,000 fine, according to the U. S. Attorney’s office.
Brown is not identified by name in the federal information, but it refers to McDaniel as the former campaign committee treasurer for a Philadelphia councilperson and alleges that he found several ways to steal money from the campaign: by withdrawing cash from ATM machines and bank counter withdrawals; writing and cashing checks to himself; and writing checks to another political committee he controlled, the Progressive Agenda PAC, and then taking money from Progressive Agenda.
McDaniel concealed the theft by filing false and incomplete campaign finance reports, the federal prosecutors alleged.
Calls to McDaniel and his attorney, Charles M. Gibbs, were not immediately returned.
The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U. S. Attorney Paul L. Gray is the prosecutor.
Heaven Help Us!!!! How many more 'tips' of the iceberg.— Tom Kearney- Jesus, add this to the judges last week. Will there be anyone left to run Philly?— Philly Born
- Let's face it. Corruption is so deep in every level of the City Government and School District that you have to assume that everybody is dirty. There are a few honest people but it's not many. There are a few honest, a lot somewhat dirty, and many very very dirty.
— DarnelX - Here's a 'local' story with only nine comments.
Also do you ALWAYS hijack the front page?
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130119_Former_Delaware_County_Register_of_Wills_staffer_charged_with_theft.html— Cuddles - What about her Mrs. Blondell she already admitted to steal from her own campaign account for personal use where in he hell is her charges.— LTHOMAS
- Blondie for Mayor!— ricciaje
- The information filed, rather than indictment, probably means McDaniel has "flipped" and will be talking about Ms. Blondell Brown's knowledge and involvement. You can't indict everyone in the same week, otherwise, the newspapers would have nothing to write about next week. Besides, when Blondell reads that McDaniel is in this trouble, it will make her squirm a bit.— TheGuyfromPhilly
- The information seems to be incomplete. It alleges aiding and abetting, but there is no separate claim for that. One would assume that the aiding and abetting would be of another person's criminal activity. Let's see where that leads.— Palestra Jon
- My God....!!!— AuthorRtorressadler
- He's connected so I'm sure he'll be ROR'd... and with Brown... she might get a 30-day suspended sentence if the judge is harsh...— hotstuff
So, the underlings go to jail. When is Blondell being charged? This pig needs to be put in jail!- Heard from DA Seth Williams, "Darn, I was just gonna start an investigation into that". "Now there is no corruption left in the city for me to investgate"!— tlee
God willing mcdaniel turns state's evidence and rolls on BRB. i can't wait til she's behind bars. all this so she could send her daughter to a 16k/yr private school on the main line— hannibal barca- You need to resign BRB!!!! Time to go, I gave $$ to your campaign and trust me, it will not happen again. What did my money go towards?— Joschmo
- Does this mean nutter won't rehire him again?— anti-tax
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