The prosecutors began their investigation for corruption, based upon two separate eight-figure settlements that Fumo reached with PECO (the local energy monopoly) and Verizon, settlements that appeared to blur the line between benefiting Senator Fumo’s constituents and benefiting aggrieved citizen Fumo.

For whatever reason, though, the government did not actually indict Fumo for corruption, but rather primarily for defrauding to nonprofits closely tied to him. “Defrauding” is a lot stronger word than the evidence seems to show — everyone at the nonprofits either knew or did not care about how much they were spending for Fumo’s benefit. (There are also indictments for misusing Senate staff and for obstruction of justice by destroying emails.)

I’d also point out that the context of the “fixer” in the ABA article contributed to the defamatory meaning. You may want to take that with a grain of salt, though; my firm represented Sprague in that matter. We also represented Sprague in the $34-million-Philadelphia-verdict mentioned in the Forbes story. You can get a lot more detail on that case in the biography recently published of Beasley (which was not part of a settlement), available at http://www.courtroomcowboy.com/.