The
Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office ran an undercover sting operation over
three years that captured leading Philadelphia Democrats, including four
members of the city's state House delegation, on tape accepting money, The
Inquirer has learned.
Yet
no one was charged with a crime.
Prosecutors
began the sting in 2010 when Republican Tom Corbett was attorney general. After
Democrat Kathleen G. Kane took office in 2013, she shut it down.
In a
statement to The Inquirer on Friday, Kane called the investigation poorly
conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism, saying it had targeted African
Americans.
Those
who favored the sting believe Kane killed a solid investigation, led by
experienced prosecutor Frank G. Fina, that had ensnared several public
officials and had the potential to capture more. They said they were outraged
at Kane's allegation that race had played a role in the case.
Before
Kane ended the investigation, sources familiar with the inquiry said, prosecutors
amassed 400 hours of audio and videotape that documented at least four city
Democrats taking payments in cash or money orders, and in one case a $2,000
Tiffany bracelet.
Typically,
the payments made at any one time were relatively modest - ranging from $500 to
$2,000 - but most of those involved accepted multiple payments, people familiar
with the investigation said. In some cases, the payments were offered in
exchange for votes or contracts, they said.
Sources
with knowledge of the sting said the investigation made financial pitches to
both Republicans and Democrats, but only Democrats accepted the payments.
The
investigation's undercover operative was a little-known lobbyist, Tyron B. Ali,
40, who agreed to wear a wire and tape the officials to win favorable treatment
after his arrest in a $430,000 fraud case, the newspaper has learned.
In an
unusual move, the Attorney General's Office then dropped the fraud charges
secretly, under seal, last fall.
Read the full story: www.philly.com
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