Jurors To Hear Closing Arguments In Chaka Fattah Jr. Fraud Trial
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- At his bank and tax fraud trial, Chaka Fattah Jr. has called more former colleagues with whom his businesses had contact, and will finish presenting his defense by calling his accountant to the stand.
The jury is expected to hear closing arguments later today.
A former administrator at a company that ran Delaware Valley High School, which took in students with disciplinary issues, recalls Fattah Jr. telling him the company president 'was running a scam,' and Dr. Andre Bean acknowledges he and Fattah discussed forming a competing alternative education business.
Prosecutors allege when Fattah Jr. tried to blow the whistle on their boss, he implicated himself, and Fattah Jr. was charged.
When Assistant US Attorney Paul Gray cross-examined Bean, Gray snapped, it was Fattah who was running a scam, wasn't he, by pocketing money intended for counselors? Bean testified he preferred to characterize it as making a "false statement in the budget."
Fattah Jr. intends to call his accountant to the stand, whom he says will testify that Fattah's revenues from four businesses, including an educational consulting firm called 259 Strategies, and American Royalty, a concierge service for high net worth clients, took in over a million dollars between 2002 and 2012.
In Fattah's words, "I worked hard and I made money."
Federal prosecutors allege he defrauded banks and the IRS between 2005 and 2012, and made false statements to obtain and settle loans to fund a lavish lifestyle. Prosecutors say the money was used for cars, clubs, clothes, restaurants, and entertainment, rather than working capital and other business expenses as required by the loan agreements.