Jury deliberating in Fattah Jr. trial

FEDERAL prosecutors pounded over and over to a jury yesterday that Chaka Fattah Jr. lied to get business bank loans, misspent money on designer suits and ties, filed false or no income-tax returns and bilked the Philadelphia School District out of money for kids in need.

"This case is about lying, stealing and cheating," prosecutor Eric Gibson, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, told jurors in his closing argument at Fattah's fraud trial.

"Boxes of brochures, Armani suits . . . doesn't make anyone more of a businessman than sitting on a couch eating Fiesta Pizza and watching 'Law & Order' makes somebody a lawyer," Gibson said. Raising his voice, Gibson told the jury of nine men and three women: "Enough of living high with other people's money. Enough!"

Fattah, 32, the son of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah Sr., however, passionately told jurors in his closing argument: "This case by the government starts from a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a businessman."

Fattah has painted a picture of himself as a hardworking entrepreneur, who started various businesses - the first, FattahGraphy, in 2002 when he was 19 and a college student living at Drexel.

He told jurors he made tens of thousands of dollars taking photos for political campaigns in 2002. That was enough to "buy a lot of ties, it can buy a lot of suits, pay for computer equipment."

Added Fattah: "The government likes to focus on Fiesta Pizza," referring to trial testimony that he often ordered lots of pizzas while living in an apartment in Roxborough while trying to start a concierge business. "It's true I didn't know how to cook. It's not a crime."

Fattah, who is not a lawyer and didn't graduate college, has been representing himself in his trial on bank- and tax-fraud charges. (A federal defender is serving as backup counsel.)

He is accused of defrauding several banks, the IRS and the School District of Philadelphia of hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2005 to 2012.

After closing arguments and the judge's instructions on the charges, the jury deliberated for a half-hour yesterday before being dismissed at 4:30 p.m. It will resume deliberations this morning.

Fattah is accused of fraudulently obtaining business bank loans in 2005 and 2011, and spending the money on personal expenses, such as buying a BMW, paying off gambling debts and dining at high-end restaurants.

He is also accused of defrauding the school district when he worked for the now-defunct Delaware Valley High School, a for-profit company that received school-district funds to run alternative schools. The feds contend Fattah and DVHS's president, David Shulick, submitted two budgets for DVHS's Southwest Philadelphia school, which inflated salary figures for a director, teachers, administrative staff and nonexistent employees. Shulick hasn't been charged.

Fattah, in his closing, said although line items in the "Southwest" school budgets weren't accurate, the money was spent to benefit students - with new computers and a renovated school building.

Earlier in the day, Fattah called his final defense witness: a certified public accountant, Arvelle Jones, who was asked to review checks Fattah had received for photography work and some tax documents.

But under cross-examination by Gibson, Jones was asked who contacted him to testify. "An intermediary" contacted him Monday, Jones said. Asked who that was, Jones replied, "His [Fattah Jr.'s] father," the congressman.

Jones also testified that he has been treasurer, since 2013, for Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, who is a friend of Fattah Sr.

While Gibson asked Jones about details of a 2004 income-tax return, in which Fattah claimed he had earned $140,000 in revenue - which the feds contend is false and was used as an instrument of bank fraud to obtain the loans in 2005 - Jones didn't have many answers.

He said his review was solely based on documents he received from Fattah Jr.

Fattah Sr., 58, the longtime Democratic congressman who represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, sat in the courtroom yesterday with his wife, NBC10 anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, during testimony and closing arguments.

The elder Fattah listened intently. He gave a sarcastic chuckle when Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray, in his rebuttal closing argument, called Fattah Jr. "a cheat and a deadbeat."

Fattah Sr. faces his own separate trial on fraud charges May 2.

Asked his reaction before he left the courthouse following closing arguments, Fattah Sr. said, "I have complete faith in the jury."

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