Jurors still weighing fate of Fattah

Whichever way federal jurors are leaning as they weigh the fate of Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr., it may be his own words that push them over the edge.

Twice Wednesday - the first full day of deliberations in his bank- and tax-fraud trial - the panel of eight men and four women asked to review evidence featuring Fattah describing to others his problems with debt and his work at a for-profit education firm.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III sent them a transcript of a 2008 deposition Fattah gave in a lawsuit by Sun National Bank.

In it, Fattah testified under questioning from Sun's lawyers that he had no checking or savings account at the time and had no clients for his personal concierge service, American Royalty.

Prosecutors have alleged that at the time of that testimony, he was receiving payments as large as $10,000 from clients paying him to help secure American Express Black Cards. Several testified at trial that Fattah had ripped them off.

Later, the jurors asked to rehear audio recorded in 2011 by Fattah's college roommate and ex-business partner, Matthew Amato, who was wearing a wire for the FBI.

Amato, 33, like Fattah was charged last year in a bank-fraud scheme that involved their obtaining $141,000 in business loans in 2005. Prosecutors allege that the pair devoted the money to fuel extravagant personal tastes in clothing, cars, and restaurants before defaulting on many of their debts.

Amato pleaded guilty last year, but the hours of conversations he recorded with Fattah over eight months in 2011 featured heavily in prosecutors' closing arguments in Fattah's trial Tuesday.

"Loans are for working capital," Fattah said of the debts he and Amato incurred in one recording from May 2011. "Working capital can be used for anything. . . . [It] can be used to pay my salary, your salary . . . a party at R2L [a Center City restaurant and lounge] - for anything."

Elsewhere in the Amato recordings, Fattah discusses the financial trouble he and Amato landed themselves in years earlier and his new job at Delaware Valley High School, a for-profit company that held $4.5 million in Philadelphia School District contracts to run two alternative schools.

Fattah is accused of inflating budgets the company submitted to the district and pocketing the excess while underpaying teachers and failing to hire counselors for the campuses' at-risk students.

Jurors broke for the day after about seven hours of deliberations. Fattah appeared calm throughout, chatting with reporters in the courtroom, listening to R&B tracks on an old laptop, and even engaging in a playful back-and-forth with a court watcher who chided him on his credit-card usage and urged him to "fight the power."

His family members, including his father, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), and stepmother, NBC10 news anchor Renee Chenault Fattah, have been a frequent presence in the courtroom during the trial. They were not seen Wednesday.

Jury deliberations are expected to resume Thursday.

jroebuck@phillynews.com

215-854-2608 @jeremyrroebuck