Chip Fattah's federal trial on bank and tax fraud set to start
The resumé of self-described "entrepreneur, socialite and lifestyle mogul" Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. is as long as it is varied.
The resumé of self-described "entrepreneur, socialite and lifestyle mogul" Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. is as long as it is varied.
At various points, he says, he's worked as an education consultant, a Web designer, a photographer - no, make that "Fattahgrapher" - as well as a high-end concierge, offering clients in a pinch access to exclusive credit cards, golf course reservations, and private planes.
On Thursday, Fattah will add one more title to that list - amateur defense lawyer - in an effort to keep yet another - convicted felon - off of it.
Federal prosecutors are set to begin picking a jury and presenting their case against the 33-year-old son of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) in a federal bank and tax fraud trial.
And to hear them tell it, Fattah Jr. spun lie after lie about his professional life to keep business loans coming and to finance his flashy lifestyle: a BMW, cases of liquor, high-end clothing, and a $600,000 condo at the Ritz-Carlton.
Now, Fattah, a Central High School grad who attended Drexel University, is confident the facts and the law are on his side.
Acting as his own lawyer, he has flooded the court with dozens of pretrial motions that, while largely unsuccessful, have challenged the government on everything from the wording of its indictment to the tactics prosecutors and FBI agents used while investigating him. He has filed civil suits against the IRS and the U.S. Justice Department, claiming his rights were violated by their probe.
"The government has built its entire case on a deck of cards," he said in an interview Wednesday. "They're wrong about the facts. And to the extent that they have some of the facts right, they're wrong about the law."
Of his prospects of besting career prosecutors in court without any professional legal training of his own, Fattah said: "I feel really good. I've done a tremendous amount of research and work to prepare for this.
"I'm confident I'm more prepared than the government to talk about my life."
Since his arrest last year, Fattah has argued that the case against him is nothing more than a misguided attempt to strike a blow against his father, who faces his own indictment on federal racketeering conspiracy charges and is scheduled for trial in May.
And although the cases of father and son are unrelated, the allegations in both bear certain similarities.
The congressman, 58, stands accused of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds, charitable donations, and federal grant money under his control to prop up his ailing 2007 mayoral campaign, and to enrich himself and political allies.
Prosecutors allege his son shared a similar flippancy when it came to spending other people's money.
Over the last decade, Fattah Jr. held himself out as the owner of several successful businesses, which government lawyers now describe as mostly scams.
They have referred to his education consulting firm, 259 Strategies, as a "shell" company. They allege his management consulting company, Chaka Fattah Jr. & Associates, was invented out of whole cloth and never did any legitimate business.
American Royalty - Fattah's personal concierge service for high rollers that promised sports tickets, private planes, and reservations at ritzy restaurants and exclusive golf clubs - was best known for ripping off its customers to the tune of $53,000 and providing little to nothing in return, prosecutors say.
Nonetheless, Fattah managed to secure business loans from area banks to fund those ventures. The indictment alleges that on loan applications he grossly inflated the money he was making, and then spent the cash he received on himself and to pay off gambling debts and payments on his then-girlfriend's Audi.
Fattah contends the government just doesn't understand how marketing and public relations work.
"Working capital can be used for anything," he told his roommate and business partner in a 2011 conversation caught on an FBI recording. "Working capital can be used to pay my salary, your salary, a party at R2L [restaurant and lounge], anything."
He also stands accused of defrauding the Philadelphia School District in connection with his consulting work with Delaware Valley High School, a for-profit education firm that held a $4.1 million contract.
Prosecutors say that Fattah and Delaware Valley president David T. Shulick bilked the School District out of hundreds of thousands of dollars between 2010 and 2012 by submitting inflated invoices while running a disciplinary school in East Falls and an accelerated high school program for dropouts in Southwest Philadelphia.
It was Fattah himself that tipped off the authorities to the fraud. Hoping to earn a reward and edge out Shulick to start his own rival company, Fattah in March 2012 attempted to anonymously report the misspending to the district's Inspector General's Office.
Later, he walked district representatives through Delaware Valley's budgets line-by-line pointing out inflated salaries, exaggerated benefit costs, and money allotted for nonexistent employees. Little did he know at the time, an FBI agent was among the people attending the meeting.
Since then, Fattah Jr. has accused the FBI of tricking him into incriminating himself. On Wednesday he said authorities have misinterpreted what was a mere budget proposal.
"If we say we're going to hire someone for $80,000 and we hire someone for $50,000, that extra $30,000 is not necessarily money we're taking," he said. "They're going to have to prove that when the budgets were sent, we knew they were wrong."
Despite having to defend himself against seasoned federal prosecutors, Fattah remains bullish on his chances.
"My businesses made like $1 million over a period of years," he said. "I've worked hard for a long time and I'm going to keep working hard."
The trial is expected to last four weeks.
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