5/2/16
by News Department on 05/02/16Ex-Rendell Aide pleads guilty...
A onetime chief of staff to ex-Gov. Ed Rendell agreed in a court document filed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud for pocketing thousands of dollars in supposed campaign contributions from a fake company set up by the FBI to investigate public corruption in the state.
According to a plea deal filed in Harrisburg federal court, John H. Estey collected $20,000 from the fake company in 2011 to make campaign contributions that would influence state lawmakers and agreed to distribute the money in a way that would hide the company’s role.
State law bans campaign donations from corporations. Documents revealed that Estey agreed to give $5,000 each to three unnamed lawmakers and one unidentified leadership caucus but made only $7,000 in donations and converted $13,000 “to his own use.”
Estey first met with agents posing as UCC executives in 2009, and he represented the company from 2009 through 2011 as an owner of an unidentified Philadelphia-based lobbying firm.
