FBI pays a visit to Harrisburg in Fumo probe
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Posted on Fri, May. 21, 2004
Fumo Probe Moves to Harrisburg
The FBI visited Harrisburg to ask questions about the senator's role in taxpayer grants given to the Independence Seaport Museum.
By Mario F. Cattabiani, Craig R. McCoy and John Sullivan
Inquirer Staff Writers
HARRISBURG - Federal investigators have extended their probe into State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's dealings to the state Capitol, where FBI agents this week began trying to unravel the taxpayer grants the powerful legislator helped funnel to a Philadelphia maritime museum.
Two people familiar with the investigation said yesterday that agents were in Harrisburg to determine what role Fumo played in securing what lawmakers here call "walking around money" grants, or WAMs, for the Independence Seaport Museum.
Yesterday, Gov. Rendell would confirm only that the FBI had interviewed administration aides regarding the grants, which are controlled by legislative leaders to fund their pet projects.
"They wanted to learn how the WAM process works, how the money gets in the budget, who gives the requests, and how it gets authorized," Rendell said. "They wanted to get an understanding of how it works. This truly was just informational."
In a wide-ranging investigation of Fumo, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have issued at least a dozen subpoenas to a string of nonprofit groups with ties to the senator.
Those nonprofits have also received WAM grants totaling about $6 million in recent years.
Among other areas of focus, FBI agents have been exploring Fumo's cruises on a luxury yacht owned by the Independence Seaport Museum, of which the Philadelphia Democrat is a longtime board member.
The museum normally rents the yacht, known as the Enticer, for $22,000 a week to the public. Museum director John S. Carter has said that it permits board members to sail for free, as long as they are trying to raise money for the museum at the time.
The IRS follows the same guidelines.
Before shifting to Harrisburg, agents had subpoenaed records at the museum and interviewed employees of a private Florida company that charters the Enticer for the museum.
Aides to Fumo did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. In the past, he has defended his use of the yacht and has said that the FBI investigation is groundless.
M. Walter D'Alessio, chairman of the museum on Penn's Landing, recently called Fumo the museum's "largest single contributor of public funds."
The museum has received more than $6 million in public money over the last decade.
Aside from city, state and federal money, the museum also has received $2 million from the Delaware River Port Authority, an agency on which Fumo has long been a power.
WAMs are a pool of discretionary funds, replenished annually, controlled by a few top legislative leaders. As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Fumo has great say over how upward of $10 million in such funds is carved up annually.
Most recently, the state has provided $760,000 in three such grants to Independence Seaport in 2001 and 2002.
That money, secured in part with Fumo's backing, was used to pay for building renovations, staff salaries, operating expenses, and repairs on the Olympia, the historic warship maintained by the museum as a tourist attraction.
Fumo's Web site describes him as an "avid boater" and cites his membership in the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the American Professional Captains Association.
The Enticer was donated to the museum in 1995. Two years before that, the museum had purchased its first motor yacht, the Principia. It paid $112,000 to buy it from actor John Davidson.
At one point, a $500,000 WAM grant was to be used to buy the Principia.
The grant was given to the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild, another nonprofit agency active on the Philadelphia waterfront, with the understanding that the grant would be used to help Independence Seaport buy the yacht.
In 1993, The Inquirer reported that a Fumo aide at the time, Fred Labrosciano - who was also on the guild board - had advised the guild that if it didn't use the grant "to purchase an historic vessel as the grant required, the state may never have given us any money again."
Ultimately, state grants were not tapped to buy the Principia. Carter, the museum director, said the money came from private fund-raising.
The museum sold the boat for $1 million in 1999 after investing about $1.5 million to buy it and renovate it. The boat's costs were also defrayed by the money collected chartering out the Principia over the years.
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Contact staff writer Mario F. Cattabiani at 717-787-5990 or mcattabiani@phillynews.com.
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To visit the website of Fumo's Fall challenger, Jack Morley, please click on www.morley2004.com
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05-21-2004, 12:40 PM
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