Fattah indictment highlights

Some highlights of the indictment against U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah:

The 29-count indictment charges Fattah misused campaign funds to pay off his son's $23,000 student loan; accepted an illegal $1 million in campaign loans and misappropriated federal funds to pay off $600,000 of it; sold his office to erase a $130,000 campaign debt; and accepted a separate $18,000 bribe in a bid to help a codefendant get a federal appointment.

The charges include racketeering conspiracy; bribery; conspiracy to commit wire, honest services and mail fraud; money laundering conspiracy; money laundering; bank fraud; false statements to a financial institution; mail fraud; wire fraud; and falsification of records.

The indictment alleges Fattah relied on companies and nonprofits operated by associates in a complex scheme to hide financial transactions.

Charged with Fattah are Bonnie Bowser, 59, of Philadelphia, the congressman's Philadelphia office chief of staff and chair of his mayoral and congressional campaigns; Karen Nicholas, 57, of Williamstown, N.J., CEO of the Fattah-founded Educational Advancement Alliance, a nonprofit; Herbert Vederman, 69, of Palm Beach, Fla. a former Philadelphia deputy mayor and Fattah campaign official; and Robert Brand, 69, of Philadelphia, founder of Company 2, a for-profit policy technology company, and spouse of a former Fattah staffer.

The bribery charge stems from an alleged $18,000 payment by Vederman to Fattah to lobby on Vederman's behalf for an ambassadorship or appointment to the Federal Trade Commission.

The congressman's wife, NBC10 news anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, is implicated in the indictment but not charged in the alleged fraudulent sale of her 1989 Porsche. According to the indictment, Vederman wired the Fattahs $18,000 for the vehicle in 2012 but it remained registered in her name and was in her garage two years later.