Totalitarian Pennsylvania Update.

The Feds tighten the noose around state senator Vincent "Dumb Vince" Fumo.

Pittsburgh Tribune- Review: Feds charge Fumo aides

The FBI swept in and arrested two aides to a powerful state senator early Wednesday, charging that they regularly deleted e-mails related to a corruption probe of their boss.

Leonard P. Luchko and Mark Eister, who were assigned to do computer work for state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, permanently deleted e-mails from computers at Fumo's Senate offices, his home at the New Jersey shore and at a nonprofit with deep ties to him.

They performed these electronic "wipes" at Fumo's direction throughout the three-year FBI investigation, authorities charged.

"This was a deliberate, systematic, and ultimately successful effort to interfere with a federal investigation," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan.

"We have to assume that valuable information is lost forever."

The document does not name Fumo and he has not been charged. The affidavit refers only to an unidentified senator, but it is clear that it refers to Fumo.

The investigation centers on whether Fumo used his office to extort corporation donations for the nonprofit, which benefits Fumo's South Philadelphia district.

The Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods has obtained millions of dollars in donations from powerful entities that lobby the Legislature. In one long-secret deal, Peco Energy Co. gave $17 million to the group, which has cleaned sidewalks and streets, helped finance charter schools and refurbished run-down properties in South Philadelphia.

Beware Democrass charities.

Investigators are trying to find out if Fumo "benefited both politically and personally from expenditures" made by Citizens' Alliance, authorities said in court documents. Prosecutors say they have numerous e-mails from third-party sources that show Fumo used the nonprofit to funnel money to projects and causes important to him.

Fumo, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is one of the most influential politicians in Harrisburg and in Philadelphia city politics.

He has said requests for donations to Citizens Alliance were savvy efforts to help his district, were not part of government negotiations with companies and did not influence his policy positions.

A message left for Fumo spokesman Gary Tuma on Wednesday was not immediately returned.

Luchko, 49, of Collingdale, was employed by Senate Democratic Computer Services, an entity of the state Senate that provides computer assistance to Democratic members of the Senate. He was assigned to the senator's district office in Philadelphia.

Eister, 36, of Camp Hill, worked for the computer services agency at the Capitol in Harrisburg and aided Fumo's office there.

Senate records indicate that, as of January, Luchko earned $64,000 and Eister $62,000. Under Senate rules, anyone charged with a felony is suspended without pay, federal officials said.

Each was arrested at home before daybreak, the FBI said. At an afternoon hearing in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, the two were released on bail and were ordered not to talk to Fumo staff members. They are due back in court next week.

James C. Schwartzman, a lawyer for Luchko, said he was surprised to learn of the arrests because he had repeatedly offered to have his client surrender. He promised to fight the charges and said Luchko was not under any pressure to please Fumo.

Schwartzman said that it is "probably a good guess" that federal investigators are using the two defendants to build a case against Fumo.
"You tell me if you've ever heard of a prosecution for the alleged improper use of a not-for-profit," he said.


Key dates in Fumo investigation

FEBRUARY-MAY 2003: Federal authorities issue grand jury subpoenas regarding the finances of Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods. The community nonprofit was founded in 1991 by a former aide to state Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, and led by his then-deputy chief of staff, Ruth Arnao.

NOVEMBER 2003: The Philadelphia Inquirer begins a series of articles examining donations to Citizens' Alliance. It is later revealed that Peco Energy _ whose efforts to win state deregulation of electricity markets had first been opposed, then supported, by Fumo _ had donated $17 million to the group.

DEC. 1, 2003: Fumo aide Leonard Luchko sends an e-mail to 24 members of Fumo's staff, including Arnao, instructing them to delete all e-mail to or from the senator. Arnao is not named in court documents but can be identified through context.

In response to Arnao's question, "What's this about again?" Luchko replies, "(The Senator) called me into his office today and told me to start going around and checking everyone's Computer and make sure they were not saving his mail."

JAN. 25, 2004: The Inquirer runs a front-page story headlined, "FBI Probes Fumo Deal." Luchko sends messages to staffers telling them that he has to erase information from their computers.

"The FBI probe into the Senator has really set him off he wants us to do a number of security checks starting tomorrow," Luchko wrote. "He wants all of the Blackberries wiped and (another computer aide) and I have to bring in all laptops and do DOD wipes on them etc."

A "DOD wipe" refers to a wipe meeting Department of Defense standards, in which the unallocated space of a computer's hard drive _ where deleted files may be found _ is erased seven times to ensure its destruction.

JUNE 14, 2004: After Fumo aide Mark Eister instructs the senator's Harrisburg staff to delete e-mail to and from Fumo, he writes to Luchko: "I made the announcement this morning at the (Senators) staff meeting and I'm not the most popular person with the staff right now."

At some point following that meeting, Eister works on staffers' computers, according to a staff member.

JAN. 19, 2005: The U.S. attorney in Philadelphia writes to the lawyer for Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, expressing concern about why such a small amount of the organization's e-mail had been produced to the grand jury despite the issuance of a subpoena in April 2004.

FEB. 3, 2005: Luchko writes to Eister, "I met with my lawyer today and the FBI tomorrow if I were you I would make sure everything is clean on (Fumo's) server they were asking me about our e-mail where is the server etc." A few minutes later, Luchko adds, "They are looking for e-mails to and from (Arnao) and they are pissed because I wiped her PC and destroyed her old card."

FEB. 18, 2005: FBI and IRS agents execute a search warrant on Fumo's district office in Philadelphia. When agents arrive, a wipe is running on Luchko's computer after he had left for the day.

MARCH 9, 2006: Prosecutors reveal in a related hearing that an unidentified Fumo aide _ not Luchko or Eister _ had deleted e-mail related to the investigation.

MAY 31, 2006: Luchko and Eister are arrested and charged with obstruction of justice.