Fattah Jr.'s federal trial drawing to a close

Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. sought to portray himself as a diligent and successful school administrator as he wound down his defense case Monday in his federal bank and tax fraud trial.

Two school officials called to testify on his behalf said Delaware Valley High School-Southwest offered an adequate learning environment to at-risk students, despite government allegations that Fattah was draining tens of thousands of dollars from its budget between 2010 and 2012.

Majeedah Scott, who oversaw alternative school programs for the Philadelphia School District, said the campus - near 64th Street and Elmwood Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia - mostly received sufficient marks on its annual evaluations in those years.

Andre Bean, a Delaware Valley administrator, testified that he never saw any fights break out at the Southwest school.

Fattah, 32, hoped their words would dispel prosecutors' dismal portrait of him during his tenure as chief operating officer of Delaware Valley, the for-profit education firm run by lawyer David Shulick that held $4.5 million in School District contracts to run both the Southwest and Kelly Drive alternative schools.

But the endorsements of Scott and Bean, who ran a sister campus for Delaware Valley on 4333 Kelly Dr. in East Falls, did not always work out how he might have hoped.

"Did you ever hear me say anything to suggest that in operating Delaware Valley High School that me or Shulick were running a scam on the Philadelphia School District?" Fattah, who is acting as his own lawyer, asked Bean.

"Yes," Bean replied - a response that elicited smirks from prosecutors and a few jurors.

He went on to explain that Fattah came to him in 2012 and accused Shulick of manipulating the budgets sent to the School District for approval to make it appear that he was funneling more money into his campuses than was actually being spent.

Prosecutors allege that Fattah and Shulick submitted "totally false" budgets that included inflated teacher salaries, $170,000 in annual expenses for health-care benefits never offered to employees, and salaries supposedly paid to interns, counselors, and security guards - even though those positions had never been filled.

In his questioning Monday, Fattah sought to pin most of the blame on Shulick, who has not been charged, calling him the "ultimate authority" on all decisions made at Delaware Valley.

"From my understanding, the scam had to do with how David Shulick was manipulating the money," Bean said.

However, he conceded, under cross-examination from Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray, that Fattah also appeared to have profited from the company's fuzzy budgeting.

Fattah - son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah - is expected to call his final three defense witnesses Tuesday morning.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III has said he expects closing arguments to conclude by later that afternoon.

In addition to the school allegations, prosecutors have accused Fattah of blowing tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulently obtained business bank loans on personal expenses like designer clothing, a sports car and expensive dinners.

With what could be the final day of his trial on the horizon, Fattah said Monday he felt confident he had demonstrated his success in business for jurors.

"Most businesses don't make money, but I did. So what?" he said in an interview. "I could go to King of Prussia and buy a nice tie. I could go to Best Buy and buy a plasma right now. I could also buy a lot of Fiesta pizza."

jroebuck@phillynews.com

215-854-2608@jeremyrroebuck