Thread: Philly DA Seth Williams pleads guilty, goes to prison

Philly DA Seth Williams pleads guilty, goes to prison

Updated: June 29, 2017 — 8:44 PM EDT

by Jeremy Roebuck, Staff Writer @jeremyrroebuck |jroebuck@phillynews.com

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams abruptly resigned his office and agreed to plead guilty Thursday in a surprise move that ended a federal bribery trial that had dragged messy details about his personal life into the open, and had cast a deepening shadow over the final days of his once-promising political career.

But minutes after accepting Williams’ decision, the judge presiding over the case made a startling announcement of his own — ordering the city’s top prosecutor handcuffed and immediately hauled off to prison.

“I have a guilty plea from the highest law enforcement officer in the city,” U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond said. “He betrayed his office and he sold his office. I am appalled by the evidence that I have heard.”

The news hit the courtroom — and the city — like a bomb.

As U.S. marshals surrounded Williams, his ex-wife, Sonita — one of the few family members in the room — broke down in tears. Jurors, abruptly dismissed after two weeks of damaging testimony, were flummoxed, some saying they were disappointed they wouldn’t have a chance to render a verdict.

And downstairs, the district attorney’s driver stood beside Williams’ idling car, waiting for a man he hadn’t yet learned wouldn’t be leaving the building.

Under order from Diamond, the district attorney’s resignation letter — hastily scrawled on a piece of paper moments before the hearing — was couriered to Mayor Kenney’s office, as the city’s Board of Judges scrambled to schedule a special meeting to name an interim replacement, something it hasn’t had to do in nearly three decades.

“I’m just very sorry for all of this, your honor,” a choked-up Williams said.

Those last public words, uttered moments before he was led away, effectively ended Williams’ career in office — which had begun in 2010 amid widespread accolades for sweeping changes he promised to implement within the city’s justice system, only to be overshadowed more recently by a series of scandals involving his money, his dating life, and his personnel decisions.

Even as he faced indictment on 29 counts of bribery, fraud, and honest services fraud, Williams had clung to his position and its $176,000 annual salary, vowing he would be vindicated at trial.
It wasn’t clear Thursday what exactly prompted Williams to change his mind.

In fact, he had turned down offers from prosecutors both prior to his indictment earlier this year and again days before his trial began.

His lawyer, Thomas F. Burke, said that Williams had struggled with the decision over several days and was up late into the night Wednesday, wrestling with what he would do.

The ultimate deal with prosecutors was struck just after 1:30 a.m. Thursday, the defense lawyer said. Kathleen Martin, Williams’ first assistant, said she was notified via a text message from her boss early Thursday.

“I think this was a very hard decision for a proud man,” said Burke. “What the district attorney wanted most was closure for his family, for himself, and for the city. He’s been humbled by the experience.”

During nearly two weeks of testimony, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert A. Zauzmer, Eric Moran, and Vineet Gauri had painted Williams as a shameless moocher who repeatedly sought others’ money to support a lifestyle he couldn’t afford.

Two wealthy businessmen testified that they showered Williams with gifts of cash, luxury goods, and all-expenses-paid travel to an upscale Dominican Republic resort and other vacation spots, hoping that he would repay their generosity by using his office to remove various legal hurdles they faced.

When that largesse wasn’t enough to support Williams’ high-end tastes, government witnesses said, the district attorney raided his own campaign accounts and money set aside for his aging mother’s nursing home care.

One juror, Julie Dedic, 59, of Bethlehem, scoffed at the district attorney’s assertion that campaign money he’d spent on deep-tissue massages and facials had helped him become more electable. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said Thursday.

Meanwhile, years of text message exchanges, including one in which Williams described himself to a benefactor as “merely a humble beggar,” piled on humiliation each time they were shown.

Yet, as the gobsmacked Williams pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Travel Act — a crime that could keep him in prison for up to five years — it soon became clear that the man brought low by his own costly pursuit of the high life had lower still to fall.

Williams beseeched Diamond to let him remain free until his Oct. 24 sentencing date, citing his three school-age daughters and his inability to flee even if he wanted to.

“He has no means to go anywhere,” Burke told the court. “He has no support. He’s deeply in debt and he doesn’t even have a car.”

Williams’ eyes welled up with tears as he took the witness stand to plead his own case. Asked how much money he currently had in his bank account, he responded: “I’m always afraid to look because it’s so small — probably about $150 to $200.”

He said he had no idea how he would have supported himself had he been allowed to remain free. “Help [from] friends?” he guessed. “I haven’t really thought beyond that.”

But Williams’ already dim financial prospects are only likely to grow more dire in the coming months.

What Seth Williams May Be Forced to Pay

Seth Williams on Thursday told U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond that he has $150 to $200 in the bank and no retirement savings beyond his city pension. But City Controller Alan Butkovitz has taken action to revoke WIlliams’ pension, and the fines and fees that the former district attorney may be forced to pay are considerable.


Under the terms of his deal, Williams agreed to forfeit nearly $65,000. He could be fined up to $250,000 more and likely will face additional restitution orders from the court.

And within hours of his plea, City Controller Alan Butkovitz moved to revoke his city pension and freeze the additional $117,859 he had paid into it — a fund Williams had said represented his only retirement savings.
Williams also remains indebted to the city’s Ethics Board after agreeing in January to pay a $62,000 fine for his belated disclosure of more than $175,000 in gifts he received over five years — the largest penalty assessed on a single candidate in the board’s 11-year history.

His plea deal all but ensures that his law license will be permanently revoked and that he’ll face a prison term at the high end of the five-year sentencing range.

Although prosecutors agreed to dismiss all the charges they brought against him except the one count to which Williams admitted Thursday, the agreement also required him to confess to the other alleged crimes so that his admissions could be used against him at sentencing.

Sources close to Williams’ defense said he had turned down an earlier offer just hours before his indictment in March that would have required a guilty plea to the same count but would have prevented his other crimes from reaching the sentencing judge’s desk, substantially reducing the prison time he now faces.

Federal authorities declined Thursday to discuss any prior offers they might have made to Williams.
Instead, U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick, whose New Jersey office oversaw the case, focused on the future, saying:
“Hopefully, today’s conviction will allow the people of Philadelphia and the dedicated employees of the District Attorney’s Office to close this unfortunate chapter in the city’s history.”

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/cr...-20170629.html

https://youtu.be/tBimt4ca5ww

News

— Crime

Seth Williams' corruption trial: The case against the Philly DA explained


Updated: JUNE 29, 2017 — 12:30 PM EDT


by Jeremy Roebuck, Staff Writer
@jeremyrroebuck |
jroebuck@phillynews.com

He bowed out of a re-election bid earlier this year, apologizing for the “embarrassment and shame” he brought to his office with a series of ethical and financial missteps.

Now, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams faces the most important campaign of his life: his defense against federal corruption charges that could send him to prison for up to 20 years. On Thursday, midway through his trial, Williams accepted a plea deal and was sent to jail as he awaits sentencing.

Who is Seth Williams? Williams is Philadelphia’s top prosecutor. He was elected district attorney in 2009, with a campaign slogan of “A new day, a new DA” and was widely expected to have a bright future as a criminal justice reformer, but his tenure has been marred by an ever-growing number of scandals tied to his personal financial struggles, staffing decisions in his office and gifts he received and failed to report from wealthy benefactors.

What are his alleged crimes? Federal prosecutors have accused Williams of repeatedly misusing campaign cash and government property to live well beyond his means and selling the influence of his office to two wealthy benefactors who showered him with gifts including trips abroad, a $3,000 custom-built sofa and a used Jaguar convertible. He faces 29 corruption-related counts including bribery, extortion and honest services fraud. Williams has denied the allegations and accused FBI and IRS investigators of attempting to turn perfectly legal politicking under state law into federal crimes.

(DOCUMENT: Read the indictment |

What was the plea deal? Williams pleaded guilty to one count related to accepting a bribe from Bucks County businessman Mohammad Ali, and resigned his office “humbly, sincerely and effective immediately.” The 28 remaining counts against Williams were dismissed, but he “admits that he committed all of the conduct in those 29 counts,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Zauzmer said. Despite pleas that he be allowed to remain free until his sentencing — his attorney argued Williams has no money to flee — U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond ordered him held, and U.S. Marshals led the DA out of court in handcuffs. Sentencing is set for Oct. 24.

(READ MORE: Philly DA pleads guilty to corruption | What’s next for Philly’s District Attorney’s Office?)

How did we get here? News of the FBI’s interest in Seth Williams first broke in 2015, when investigators subpoenaed records from his campaign and the probe quickly heated up as investigators interviewed staffers in his office and requested records from a nonprofit he launched in 2011. As agents circled around him, Williams belatedly reported last year that he had received gifts worth more than $160,050 from wealthy supporters, which he had failed to report on his financial disclosure forms. The admission prompted a record fine from the city’s Board of Ethics. Many of those gifts now lie at the heart of the federal case against him.

READ MORE: Sources: D.A. Seth Williams’ spending under federal probe | D.A. Williams belatedly reports $160,050 in gifts | U.S. probing Local 98 payment to send Seth Williams’ daughters to summer camps abroad)

Seth Williams, center, leaves after being arraigned on additional charges at federal court in Philadelphia, PA on May 11, 2017. (DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer)

Why is the trial happening so quickly? U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond has set an unusually brisk schedule, ordering the case to trial three months after prosecutors filed their indictment. Typically, it can take a year or more for lawyers on both sides to prepare for document-heavy public corruption cases. However, Diamond rejected government pleas for more time to get ready, explaining he was “hard-pressed to think of a case where the public’s right to a speedy trial is more pressing than it is here” given Williams’ decision to stay on as district attorney even while fighting felony charges.

How long did Williams stay in office? The district attorney agreed to a temporary suspension of his law license days after he was indicted in March but vowed to remain in his post until he could be vindicated at trial. Because he is not currently an active lawyer, he had limited his role to that of an administrator and left all oversight of the thousands of criminal cases that flow through his office each year to his first assistant, Kathleen Martin. That did not stop Williams from continuing to collect his $175,572-a-year salary — or his critics from trying to boot him from his post anyway. But his removal did not come until Thursday, when he pleaded guilty.

What does the government case look like? Prosecutors expect to take two to three weeks to present their case, including a series of potentially damaging text messages Williams’ allegedly sent to his benefactors seeking their financial largesse. In one, he described himself as “merely a thankful beggar.” In a pretrial memorandum, government lawyers broke Williams’ alleged wrongdoing into five separate schemes:

Feasterville businessman Mohammad N. Ali (CLEM MURRAY / File Photograph)

• Accepting bribes from Feasterville businessman Mohammad N. Ali, 40, who prosecutors say gave thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts to Williams between 2010 and 2015, including an all-expenses-paid Caribbean vacation and a $3,000 custom-built sofa. Although Ali has said he had a “personal relationship” with the top prosecutor, he also has admitted to asking Williams to help him bypass secondary security screening at Philadelphia International Airport and to intervene in a drug case against a disc jockey at a Center City nightclub that Ali patronized. (READ MORE: Who is Mohammad Ali, the businessman who took the DA to Punta Cana? | If benefactor tried to buy leniency, Seth Williams failed to deliver)
• Accepting vacations and a used 1997 Jaguar XK-8 convertible from businessman Michael Weiss, owner of the Center City gay bar Woody’s, for his help resolving regulatory problems involving the liquor license for Weiss’ bar in California. (READ MORE: Owner of iconic gay bar central to case against Philly DA)
• Fraud involving using $20,000 designated for his ailing mother’s care in a nursing home for personal use. (READ MORE: DA Seth Williams’ prime target – his mother’s money, feds say)
• Defrauding his political action committee, Friends of Seth Williams, by using more than $10,000 in contributions for personal expenses including expensive meals, massages, and facials at the Union League and the Sporting Club at the Bellevue. (READ MORE: Claiming ‘Taco Bell’ tastes, Philly DA Williams drew questions early on with elaborate campaign spending)
• Defrauding a federal anti-crime program and the city of Philadelphia by using vehicles designated for law enforcement for his personal use. (READ MORE: Philly DA faces more federal corruption charges)

What did the defense say? Williams’ lawyer has called the government’s case “laughable and unprosecutable” and accused prosecutors of attempting to turn violations of city and state ethics laws for which Williams’ has already paid into federal crimes. He will argue that the government’s accusations of campaign expenditures that have drawn federal scrutiny were perfectly legal under Pennsylvania’s lax campaign finance laws. The defense had said it would take less than a week to present its side, but Williams pleaded guilty before the prosecution even finished. (READ MORE: Lawyer blasts case against DA Seth Williams)

Who was expected to testify at trial? Aside from Ali and Weiss, the two men accused of paying Williams’ bribes, the government’s witness list contains a number of notable names. They include Williams’ ex-girlfriend Stacey Cummings, who pleaded guilty last year to slashing the tires on two city-owned vehicles parked outside his house; Patricia Tobin, assistant general manager of the Union League; Williams’ predecessor ex-District Attorney Lynne Abraham; First Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Martin; and Ed McCann, who previously held Martin’s role before resigning last year. Other employees from the District Attorney’s Office may also be called to the witness stand.

What did the jury look like? A jury of 10 women and two men, and four alternates, all women, was impaneled June 19. Just two of the main jurors are African American, but the panel — with jurors from as far away as Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties — brings diverse life experiences to the mix. One woman said she worked as a chocolate taster at the Hershey plant. Another woman, a former retail jeweler, described once chasing down and beating a robber before setting him free. The panel includes a juvenile probation officer, a businessman from Chester County, and a Philadelphia cardiac nurse. (READ MORE: Jury selected, Philly DA Seth Williams’ federal corruption trial opens Tuesday)

(From left) Assistant US Attorneys Vineet Gauri, Robert Zauzmer and Eric Moran leave a pretrial hearing for District Attorney Seth Williams at the federal courthouse in
Philadelphia on June 14, 2017. ( ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer )

Who are the lawyers? The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey is officially handling the case after the Philadelphia office recused itself for potential conflicts of interest due to the number of cases it has collaborated closely upon with Williams’ office and the number of federal prosecutors there who previously worked either for or with Williams at the District Attorney’s Office. Still, two members of the prosecution team Robert A. Zauzmer and Vineet Gauri are based in the Philadelphia U.S. Attorney’s Office.

They are joined by co-counsel Eric Moran and lead FBI case agent Vicki Humphreys. Zauzmer and Humphreys previously led the corruption investigation that convicted state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo in 2009. Williams’ lawyer, Thomas R. Burke, first met his client when they worked side-by-side in the District Attorney’s Office under Abraham in the 1990s. Though he has primarily defended state-level criminal cases, he signed on to represent his former colleague after two earlier lawyers left the case over concerns about Williams’ ability to pay their legal bills.

Who is the judge? U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond has had a 12-year career on the federal bench in which he has presided over several high-profile cases. Recently, that list has included a Green Party-backed legal fight for a recount of Pennsylvania’s 2016 presidential votes and hundreds of civil cases stemming from the arrest of six Philadelphia narcotics officers accused and later acquitted of planting evidence and shaking down drug dealers. A George W. Bush appointee, Diamond worked in the District Attorney’s Office in the late 1970s and early 1980s and served as the treasurer and lawyer for former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s failed 1996 presidential campaign.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/cr...-20170619.html

Who is Mohammad Ali, the businessman who took the DA to Punta Cana?


Updated: MARCH 22, 2017 — 7:46 PM EDT
by David Gambacorta & Wendy Ruderman, Staff Writer

It was a red herring. Behind closed doors, Williams told confidantes that he believed his ties to a little-known businessman from Bucks County named Mohammad N. Ali were the real reason the FBI and IRS began investigating his finances in 2015, culminating with his indictment Tuesday on a host of corruption charges.

Federal investigators portray the relationship between Ali and Williams as one that came uncomfortably close to resembling a quid pro quo: Ali showered the D.A. with an all-expenses-paid vacation to Punta Cuna and $9,000 in cash, while Williams offered to help Ali with problems he had with security screeners at Philadelphia International Airport and look into a criminal case that involved an associate of Ali’s.

Anyone who read through the 23-count indictment was left wondering: Just who is Ali, a man who thought nothing of buying the city’s top prosecutor a $3,200 couch, and how did he come into Williams’ life?

Some answers have begun to emerge.

Ali, 40, is a native of Jordan who used to own a prepaid-phone-card business in Feasterville called United Telecard Alliance. He first met Williams in 2010; that year, he donated $2,500 to the Friends of Seth Williams, the D.A.’s political action committee, according to campaign finance records.

Ali donated a total of $1,500 to the same PAC during the next three years, a figure that pales next to the enormous sums he shelled out on gifts and trips for Williams, who has long complained about his personal financial woes despite earning $175,572 as D.A.

There are no records of Ali donating money to other Philadelphia politicians, but he started to pop up on some pols' radar as his relationship with Williams grew.

"It's a name I've heard before," State Sen. Anthony H. Williams told the Inquirer and Daily News on Wednesday. "I know somebody talked to me about him a few years ago, but I don't think it was Seth."

On at least one occasion, Ali was seen walking around the District Attorney's Office in an area where the D.A. and other top brass were situated, according to a former veteran city prosecutor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"I never met the guy, but I remember Seth talking about him," said another former city prosecutor, who also spoke to the Inquirer and Daily News anonymously. "Seth said that [Ali] is how the feds got onto him, because he gave him that couch."

Williams also referenced trying to intervene on Ali's behalf over issues he was having at Philadelphia International Airport, that same prosecutor said.

According to the indictment, Williams made multiple offers to help Ali avoid secondary screenings when he returned from international travel, going so far as to meet with both Ali and a Philadelphia police official who was detailed to the airport on March 15, 2013. That same day, Ali gave Williams a $7,000 check.

Federal officials stressed earlier this week that the police official, whose name they didn't release, did nothing wrong. In a text message to Ali about a year later, Williams offered to "send a letter" to Homeland Security officials on Ali's behalf, the indictment shows. "I want there to be a letter in your file from the D.A. of Philadelphia," he wrote.
So what was the airport problem all about?

“Mohammad Ali is an American citizen of Jordanian descent. His mother still lives in Jordan, and he has a lot of extended family there," said Mark Cedrone, Ali's attorney."Every time he would travel internationally, he would be held for extended secondary screenings that lasted for hours. That’s really all that was."

Cedrone declined to answer any other questions about Ali and Williams.

In another series of text messages, Ali asked Williams to "help with a case for a friend of my friends" who was being prosecuted by the D.A.'s Office and facing a sentence of 1 and a half to 3 years, a term which would have placed him in a state prison. "It seems like he has the possibility of having it thrown out or continued ... if it gets continued I will then ask for the file and see what can be done to make it a county sentence," Williams responded to requests from Ali to get the sentenced reduced.

Several former city prosecutors said it was not uncommon for Williams to ask about the status of individual cases for reasons that were often unclear. "Seth is a friend of mine. I love him," said Williams, the state senator. "What I read made me emotionally concerned about my friend."

Ali, who is married with three children, did not respond to a separate request for comment. A woman who answered the door at his picturesque 3,450-square-foot home on a cul-de-sac in Feasterville said she only spoke Russian. The property was recently put up for sale, with a listing price of $599,500.

His former prepaid-phone-card business sits empty near a strip of weathered shops on Bustleton Pike. A former employee of the store, Vineer Guliani, filed a federal lawsuit against Ali in 2012 over an unexplained salary cut. The case was settled a year later; as part of the settlement agreement, Guliani is not allowed to discuss the matter, said his attorney, Scott Fegley.

Ali, who went to the University of Jordan, according to his LinkedIn account, now runs a company called What's Up Beverages LLC, which appears to sell energy drinks.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/po...416873733.html

According to the indictment, Williams made multiple offers to help Ali avoid secondary screenings when he returned from international travel, going so far as to meet with both Ali and a Philadelphia police official who was detailed to the airport on March 15, 2013. That same day, Ali gave Williams a $7,000 check.

Voters in this town elect anything and their choices are pitiful. Believe it is @ 80% democrats and that party is corrupt from top to bottom and totally out of touch after 8 yrs of obama.