Ex-councilman's aide, two others guilty of fraud
The former chief of staff to Councilman Jack Kelly, his ex-campaign treasurer, and one of Kelly's chief campaign contributors were convicted by a federal jury yesterday of a conspiracy to buy influence in City Hall.
The former chief of staff to Councilman Jack Kelly, his ex-campaign treasurer, and one of Kelly's chief campaign contributors were convicted by a federal jury yesterday of a conspiracy to buy influence in City Hall.
But the jurors rejected most of the bribery, mail-fraud, and wire-fraud charges against former Council aide Christopher Wright, ex-campaign treasurer Andrew Teitelman, and developer Ravinder "Ravi" Chawla. A fourth defendant, Hardeep Chawla, Ravi's brother, was acquitted.
Wright, 45, was found guilty on three of 13 counts that accused him of selling his services as Kelly's top aide to the Chawlas and Teitelman, the developer-brothers' company attorney.
Ravi Chawla was convicted on four of 12 counts, Teitelman on three of nine counts. Jurors came back with a verdict at 11 a.m., in their sixth day of deliberations. The trial began Jan. 27.
The three remained free on bail and face sentencing in May, with each facing approximately four to six years in prison, though the sentences could vary on either end.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bresnick, said "the jury found that Andy Teitelman and Ravi Chawla provided Chris Wright with a stream of illegal benefits in exchange for his corrupt assistance in city government."
"This is not a mixed verdict," Williams said. "This is a finding by the jury that they're not going to tolerate corruption in city government."
Kelly, a Republican at-large councilman who testified that Wright was only doing Kelly's bidding by assisting the Chawlas, issued a statement after the verdict.
"In the end, I believe that Mr. Wright was given a fair trial," Kelly said. "Although over his long career with the City of Philadelphia he has assisted countless residents, the jury has concluded that in these instances Mr. Wright violated the public's trust, and he must now face the consequences."
"It's a real sad day for the Wright family and the Teitelman family," said Mark Wright, Christopher Wright's brother, who sat through the entire 20-day trial. "Sometimes the legal system doesn't work."
The day was bittersweet for the Chawla family.
Hardeep Chawla was acquitted of all four counts against him, including a bribery charge for a $1,000 check he gave Wright for Christmas in 2005. Wright was accused of taking the $1,000, a free apartment, a free parking space, and free legal help for his services.
"It's a partial victory," Hardeep Chawla said outside court, noting that his brother, his lawyer, and his friend were found guilty.
Teitelman said he was disappointed for Wright, Ravi Chawla and himself, "but I'm thrilled that the jury was not fooled by the charges against Hardeep."
Teitelman was Kelly's campaign treasurer from 2003 to 2008, and steered at least $39,000 in contributions from the Chawlas to Kelly's campaigns during that time.
Defense attorneys said they would ask U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno to overturn the verdict; they have 30 days to file posttrial motions. They said the most serious charge, conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud, was not supported by the individual acts that constituted the other charges.
"We'll be back," Wright's lawyer, Lisa Mathewson, said.
Wright, who started with City Council in 1994 as an aide to Councilman Thacher Longstreth, went on unpaid leave two weeks after he was indicted in August. Yesterday, Kelly asked Council President Anna C. Verna to terminate Wright immediately based on the conviction.
When he testified for the government, Kelly initially said Wright did nothing wrong, but under questioning by the government conceded that Wright might have been in conflict in his dealings with his codefendants. But Kelly's assertion that Wright was only doing his job provided enough reasonable doubt on many of the counts to acquit, jury foreman Palmer Denny said in a telephone interview.
"You couldn't really say it wasn't in his job description," said Denny, a carpenter from Bucks County.
As a result, the defendants were acquitted on just about everything that Wright did for the Chawlas, which included:
Assisting with legislation that Ravi Chawla supported to allow for unmanned, robotic parking garages.
Helping Hardeep Chawla's company, Sant Properties, get a $13,000 penalty knocked off a delinquent tax bill.
Gathering information for the Chawlas when they wanted to bid on a Philadelphia Parking Authority property that was being auctioned.
Setting up meetings with Logan Square neighbors and City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke on Clarke's height-restriction bill that affected Ravi Chawla's ambitious, 8.5-acre River City development along JFK Boulevard at the Schuylkill.
All defendants were acquitted on wire-fraud and mail-fraud charges connected to those events.
Wright was also acquitted of accepting Teitelman's free legal help with his divorce and foreclosure on his marital home. Teitelman testified that he offered his services out of friendship.
Denny said the jury decided quickly that the three were guilty of Count One, the conspiracy to deprive taxpayers of Wright's honest services.
"To me, that was their inside man," Denny said, noting that Wright's e-mails to the Chawlas and Teitelman were almost always from his work e-mail account.
"That was taking up a lot of time for the citizens of Philadelphia," Denny said. "I'm sure that if I called up as much as they did, I wouldn't get Kelly, I wouldn't get Chris Wright."
But the evidence did not always match up to the individual acts, Denny said, and the legal guidelines did not always classify a suspicious act as a crime.
"We meticulously went through everything and, granted, there was a lot of acquittals, but there was reasonable doubt - there wasn't anything to really grasp" in those counts, Denny said.
The guilty verdict focused on two situations. The first was the alleged fraud scheme going back to May and June 2007.
It was at that time that Teitelman arranged for Wright to live in an apartment in a Rittenhouse Square building that Ravi Chawla's company, World Acquisition Partners, had contracted to buy. The seller of the property agreed to take Wright on a week before the sale, but instead of buying the property himself, Ravi Chawla "flipped" the property to another buyer.
The new buyers weren't aware Wright was living in their building, and when they tried to evict Wright, Teitelman acted as Wright's lawyer. For that legal help, and for defrauding the property owner, the jury convicted Ravi Chawla, Teitelman, and Wright.
Wright wound up in the apartment for more than a year without paying rent.
The other wire-fraud act involved an e-mail from Ravi Chawla to Wright on Nov. 21, 2006. Ravi Chawla was seeking Wright's help with Councilman Clarke's ordinance that would set a 125-foot height limit for much of Logan Square.
"We will need your help on going forward with this project and would like to retain you as our consultant to handle liaison work," Ravi Chawla wrote to Wright in an e-mail. Wright did not take him up on the offer; Wright and Teitelman were acquitted on that count, but Ravi Chawla was convicted.
Teitelman's attorney, William DeStefano, said the acquittals on many of the charges "may be inconsistent" with the guilty verdict on the conspiracy count and grounds for an appeal. Ravi Chawla's lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, agreed. Hardeep Chawla was represented by William Winning.