Fattah Jr.'s partner sentenced to 2 years' probation

Matthew T. Amato, who helped Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. scam thousands of dollars from area banks, and later helped the U.S. Attorney's Office convict the son of U.S. Rep Chaka Fattah, was sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation for his part in the scheme.

Amato, Fattah's onetime roommate at Drexel University and later in Roxborough, took out $65,000 in loans from four banks in 2005 in the name of Chaka Fattah Jr. & Associates, a shell company he and Fattah Jr. concocted.

In the summer of 2005, Amato received loans from Wachovia Bank, PNC Bank, and Sun National Bank on the strength of their bogus claim that their company had $140,000 in sales the previous year.

When later confronted by the FBI, Amato agreed to wear a recording device to capture Fattah making incriminating statements, and testified for the prosecution during Fattah's trial last year.

District Court Judge Harvey Bartle III said Amato, 33, of Broomall, fulfilled his part of the bargain, providing "tremendous cooperation to the government."

"I was 22. We were trying to dream big and do big things," Amato said during Fattah's trial last year. "I didn't think it was wrong at the time."

In his statement to the court Wednesday, Amato apologized and took responsibility for his criminal acts. His lawyer, Steven F. Marino, said he had repaid some of the $65,000 to the banks.

Bartle also ordered Amato, who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the banks he scammed, to pay $61,500 in restitution.

In an unusual move Wednesday, Bartle required Amato to spend 35 minutes in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing as a symbolic incarceration. He was allowed to remain in the courtroom with his weeping wife, Jacqueline, and his lawyer as company.

On Tuesday, Bartle sentenced Fattah to five years in prison for his conviction on 22 counts of bank and tax fraud, and ordered him to pay more than $1.1 million in restitution.

In another unusual move, this time on Tuesday, Bartle ordered that Fattah be taken "immediately into custody" to begin completing his prison sentence. Federal defendants convicted of nonviolent crimes are often given time to get their affairs in order before reporting to prison.

As it was, Fattah was not given time for a goodbye with his father; his mother, Michelle Wingfield; and his sister, Fran.

The judge is not yet done with the Fattah family. Rep. Fattah, 59, and four alleged accomplices are scheduled to begin trial in Bartle's courtroom on May 2 on a wide-ranging corruption case.

The 11-term Democrat, whose congressional district takes in parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, has as pleaded not guilty and predicted that he would be cleared of all charges.

mfazlollah@phillynews.com215-854-5831