When State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo thought that Verizon Pennsylvania was backing off on a deal to steer legal work to an ally’s law firm, Fumo put a new round of pressure on the telecommunications giant, Verizon’s former president testified yesterday.

The former president, Daniel Whelan, said he moved swiftly to address the powerful Democrat’s concerns, figuring out a way to guarantee $3 million in payments to the law firm.

Whelan said that Fumo deployed a similar tactic when he thought Verizon had been slow to abide by a second secret deal: contributing $500,000 to the Philly Pops, headed by Peter Nero, one of Fumo’s good friends.

Once Verizon opened its wallet, Whelan testified, Fumo’s pressure evaporated on both fronts:  read more »

Prosecutors in the corruption trial of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo used the testimony of the chairman of the Independence Seaport Museum yesterday to highlight the difference between the trips he and Fumo took on museum yachts:

Fumo, then a board member, cruised free.

Peter McCausland, board chairman, paid for his trips.

Testifying at the start of the ninth week of testimony in the trial, McCausland told the jury that board members were not permitted free trips on the museum’s historic yachts.  read more »

Undercutting a key defense element in the corruption trial of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, three board members of a Fumo-backed charity testified yesterday that they never gave advance approval to any plan to compensate him for the millions he had raised for the nonprofit.

In fact, the three, including board chairman Joseph Russo, said the idea never even came up.

Federal prosecutors called Russo and the others to the stand as they continued efforts to prove that Fumo and his codefendant, Ruth Arnao, looted the charity, Citizens’ Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, of about $1.4 million for purchases, including power tools, luxury vehicles, vacuum cleaners and expensive paint.  read more »

A former girlfriend of state Sen. Vincent Fumo testified yesterday about a five-year relationship that exposed her to luxury yachts, private jets, expensive restaurants and island vacations.

Who paid for what wasn’t clear yesterday as the witness, Dorothy Egrie-Wilcox, completed a day of direct testimony, without cross-examination by attorneys for Fumo and his longtime associate, Ruth Arnao.

But Egrie-Wilcox described various ways in which Fumo used his state Senate staff to enhance his lifestyle.

Staff members did housekeeping at Fumo’s homes in Fairmount and at the Jersey Shore, she testified, and aides drove several luggage-laden automobiles to Massachusetts every summer so that Fumo and his vacation guests could fly to Martha’s Vineyard by private jet.  read more »

After years of near silence, State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo finally laid out his defense last week to the federal government’s sprawling corruption indictment.

In the most striking defense argument, Fumo acknowledged that he had received freebies – power tools, consumer goods and much more – from a South Philadelphia neighborhood-improvement charity.

But the defense said Fumo had deserved the gifts from Citizens’ Alliance for Better Neighborhoods as thanks for having raised millions for the organization.  read more »

With the process of picking a jury moving forward slowly but surely, prosecutors and defense lawyers in the trial of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo are expected to make their opening addresses tomorrow.

Yesterday, the sides made headway at filling out a jury pool from which the 12-member panel will be chosen. But the government and the defense fell short of seating the jury, which will have to endure a trial predicted to stretch into January.

So far, about two-thirds of the pool is female. About one-fifth is African American. The jury’s final makeup will be shaped today, when prosecutors and defense lawyers exercise their right to strike potential jurors without having to give an explanation.  read more »

Do you think his lawyer would really tell him to do that?

State Sen. Vince Fumo will argue that he was simply following the advice of his former attorney, Richard A. Sprague, when his office deleted e-mails and other documents from computers before federal authorities executed a search warrant for the material.

The stunning revelation came Friday in a letter one of Fumo’s lawyers e-mailed to federal prosecutors.

Meanwhile, jury selection in his federal corruption trial began yesterday.  read more »

State Sen. Vincent Fumo and associates defrauded the Senate, a museum and nonprofit group of about $3.5 million, far more than the initial estimate, prosecutors said Monday in preparation for his trial next month.

Fumo defrauded the Senate of nearly $2 million, while he and others defrauded a museum and nonprofit group of $1.5 million more, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed Monday.

The total is far higher than $2 million estimate that prosecutors used in the 2007 federal indictment against Fumo. The amount would prove relevant if the senator is convicted and ordered to pay restitution.