FBI visit Fumo's office

==Feds charge Fumo aides with deleting e-mail to thwart probe==
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-38/1149088450269630.xml&storylist=penn
:Source: 5/31/2006, By MARYCLAIRE DALE The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As the FBI stepped up its corruption probe of a
powerful state senator, his aides destroyed years worth of their
boss' e-mails from office computers, laptops and even Blackberries,
federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The FBI swept in early Wednesday and arrested two aides who handle
computer tasks for state Sen. Vince Fumo, a Philadelphia
Democrat.
Leonard Luchko and Mark Eister, who were charged with obstruction
of justice, deleted all trace of the e-mails from computers at
Fumo's Senate offices, his New Jersey shore home and at a nonprofit
with deep ties to him, the FBI charged in a 65-page affidavit.
The aides' lawyers say they were just doing their job, securing the
privacy of the communications.
However, prosecutors say the e-mails were deleted as the FBI
demanded files as part of their grand jury investigation into Fumo's
links to the nonprofit.
"Boss is driving us ALL nuts with this FBI madness," Luchko wrote in
a June 2004 e-mail. On the same day, Luchko wrote to Eister that
Fumo wanted all e-mail between him and the Harrisburg staff deleted
on a weekly basis.
"This was a deliberate, systematic, and ultimately successful effort
to interfere with a federal investigation," U.S. Attorney Patrick
Meehan said. "We have to assume that valuable information is lost
forever."
The affidavit confirms for the first time the scope and focus of the
Fumo probe, which Meehan said was not over.
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Fumo used his office
to extort corporate donations for the nonprofit, which benefits
Fumo's South Philadelphia district.
The Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods has obtained
millions of dollars in donations from powerful entities that lobby
the Legislature.
CONTINUED 1 | 2 |