philly Street/White hearings continue.
Executive says he arranged bogus fee
Anthony C. Snell said he brokered a phony $50,000 payment from a securities firm to Ronald A. White.
By Nancy Phillips
Inquirer Staff Writer
A former executive with J.P. Morgan Securities, testifying in the City Hall corruption case, said yesterday that he arranged for the firm to pay lawyer Ronald A. White $50,000 for assisting with a bond deal even though White had done no work.
Anthony C. Snell, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year in connection with the illicit payment, said he falsified an invoice to indicate that White did legal work on a bond deal in Mobile, Ala. In reality, he said, White did nothing.
Snell said the payment was intended to curry favor with White so he would use his influence to get city business for the company. Had the firm not paid, Snell testified, "We were concerned about Mr. White possibly being an impediment to us doing business in Philadelphia."
White had been the lead defendant in the corruption case before he died of cancer in November. He was to go on trial in federal court along with former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, Commerce Bank executives Glenn K. Holck and Stephen M. Umbrell, Detroit businessman La-Van Hawkins, and Philadelphia businesswoman Janice R. Knight, who was White's girlfriend. The defendants are accused of conspiring to deprive citizens of Kemp's honest services, as well as a host of other charges.
Most of the testimony in court yesterday centered on White, a top fund-raiser for Mayor Street and a man who Snell said was influential in steering city bond work to various companies, including J.P. Morgan. There was only scant reference to Kemp and barely a mention of any of the others.
Defense lawyers emphasized that on cross-examination.
L. George Parry, a lawyer for Kemp, stressed that the treasurer knew nothing about the fraudulent payment to White.
"Corey Kemp had no role in that scam, did he?" Parry asked Snell.
"That is correct," he said.
With White's help, Snell said, J.P. Morgan worked on several financial transactions for the city, earning millions of dollars in fees. Morgan, in turn, steered legal work to White's firm, tried to get business for a printing company run by Knight, and made various charitable contributions at White's behest. Those included a $30,000 contribution to the Youth Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit run by White, and a $20,000 payment to Wesleyan University, White's alma mater.
When White pressed J.P. Morgan for more legal work, Snell said, he and a colleague decided to pay White through a fraudulent invoice.
In a wiretapped phone conversation played for the jury yesterday, the two men discussed the bogus payment. Snell told White to bill the company $50,000 for legal work on a bond deal, even though the deal was finished and the legal work already complete.
"The deal is done... . We just need an invoice from you," Snell said.
"OK, that's good," White said. "... Appreciate that, man."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan L. Markman asked Snell about the payment.
"Had Mr. White performed or done anything on the deal?" she asked.
"He had not," Snell replied.
Earlier in the day, White's daughter Simone made a brief appearance and spoke about her work as a lawyer in her father's firm. She said she had worked on some bond deals for the city and handled some correspondence for two firms owned by her mother that did business at Philadelphia International Airport.
As Simone White entered the courtroom, Knight shifted in her seat. Throughout the testimony, Knight did not look at the daughter of her longtime lover. Simone White, for her part, ignored Knight.
Simone White was questioned at one point about what effect the investigation had had on the law firm, which was raided by law enforcement officials a few days after an FBI bug was discovered in the mayor's office.
"It effectively killed any new business that we would have had," Simone White said. "Almost immediately, we started laying off employees. It essentially killed the business."
Next at the Trial
When the trial resumes on Monday, Anthony C. Snell, a former executive with J.P. Morgan Securities, is to continue testifying on cross-examination. It is unclear who will testify after him; prosecutors have been changing the order of their witnesses. |
