Phila. DA charged after federal corruption investigation

Williams is hit with 23-count indictment

PHILADELPHIA — Describing himself as “merely a thankful beggar,” Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams sought hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from donors seeking his help with their legal woes, federal authorities said Tuesday as they unveiled a 23-count indictment charging the two-term Democrat in a sprawling corruption case.

Investigators accused the city’s top prosecutor of repeatedly selling his influence and offering to intervene in a case on behalf of one wealthy benefactor. In exchange, they said, Mr. Williams accepted trips to foreign locales, a used Jaguar convertible and other gifts.

When even that wasn’t enough to cover the costs of his lush life, Mr. Williams allegedly resorted to stealing from his own mother — draining more than $20,000 of Social Security and pension income intended to pay for her nursing home to cover his mortgage and electricity bills.

“The alleged misconduct ... is brazen and wide-ranging, as is the idea that a district attorney would so cavalierly trade on elected office for financial gain,” said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Harpster at a news conference announcing the charges. “The immense authority vested to law enforcement has to be kept in check, and that requires decision makers and leaders with a steady ethical compass.”

The criminal case put a damning footnote on Mr. Williams’ career in office that began in 2010 with accolades for sweeping changes he promised to implement within the city’s justice system. He is known statewide for pursuing a corruption case involving Democratic members of the state House of Representatives accepting money. Kathleen Kane, a Democrat and former state attorney general, reportedly had shut down an

undercover investigation in the case, but Mr. Williams pursued it and secured guilty pleas.

As he announced his decision last month to forgo a re-election bid, Mr. Williams, 50, apologized for bringing “embarrassment and shame” to the District Attorney’s Office through repeated ethical lapses and vowed to win back the trust of the public and his employees.

But hours after Tuesday’s indictment, Mr. Williams offered no indication of whether he now intended to resign. His lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, vowed that Mr. Williams would fight the charges.

“Mr. Williams vehemently denies that he ever compromised any investigation, case or law enforcement function,” he said.

Sources familiar with the course of the investigation said Mr. Williams rejected a plea deal from prosecutors earlier this week. He spent the day at home with his family, an office spokesman said, and was expected to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

Inside Mr. Williams’ office of 300 prosecutors, the allegations hit like a bomb. In an internal memo, his top deputy, Kathleen Martin, assured the staff that the office was cooperating with the investigation and that no other employees had been accused of wrongdoing.

Outside, the city’s political and legal leaders offered swift condemnation.

Mayor Jim Kenney called Mr. Williams’ alleged actions “deeply shameful” and a “flagrant violation of the law.”

Deborah R. Gross, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, called for Mr. Williams to step aside immediately.

Tthe case against Mr. Williams, which involves charges of honest services fraud and other bribery-related counts, hardly came as a surprise.

Mr. Williams has been open about his financial problems since the FBI and IRS began poking into his finances two years ago. He has complained of his inability to pay for alimony stemming from a 2011 divorce and private school tuition for his daughters, despite his $170,000-a-year salary.

In January, the Philadelphia Board of Ethics assessed the largest fine in its 10-year history for his failure to report for years more than $175,000 in gifts he had accepted including a new roof, luxury vacations, Philadelphia Eagles sidelines passes and the use of a defense attorney’s home in Florida.

And Mr. Williams, as investigators described it Tuesday, was not shy about asking for handouts.

“I am merely a thankful beggar and don’t want to overstep my bounds in asking,” he said in one February 2012 text message to a donor in reference to a second planned Caribbean vacation on the donor’s tab. He told another in 2013 that he never wanted “to feel like a drag on your wallet,” yet he allegedly returned again and again to seek the man’s help in funding trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas.

Some of those gifts featured prominently in Tuesday’s indictment, including a $3,000 trip Mr. Williams took in 2012 with his then-girlfriend to the Dominican Republic, where they stayed in a presidential suite complete with access to a private beach and personal butler.

The excursion was bankrolled by Mohammad N. Ali, a Bucks County businessman who sold prepaid telephone cards and who, according to the indictment, spared no expense in showering Mr. Williams with other gifts, including a $3,212 custom sofa and cash payments of $9,000.

In exchange, prosecutors say, Mr. Williams offered to help one of Mr. Ali’s friends who faced criminal charges by drafting a plea deal that would shorten the man’s sentence and keep him out of prison.

Prosecutors did not say Tuesday whether Mr. Williams ever followed through with his promise. Mr. Ali did not respond to requests for comment.

“In the future,” he told Mr. Ali in an August 2012 text message quoted in the indictment, “always give me at least a week to help a friend. I have no problem looking at anything.”