Former Penn Pike official, Fumo aide apologizes, gets five years confinement

S Michael Palermo a former associate executive director at the Pennsylvania Turnpike and longtime flunkey to jailed state senator Vincent Fumo apologized in US District Court today, and said he had been wrong to sign on for no-work contracts with agencies of the state of Pennsylvania.

In return for his guilty plea he got five years of "home confinement" and "probation."

Palermo, 69, got bogus state "consulting" contracts over some six years for which he ran errands for then-Senator Fumo and looked after his weekend retreat in the countryside outside Harrisburg.

Fumo, 66, a Democrat once considered one of the most powerful politicians in the state as chairman of the senate appropriations committee was convicted by a jury in Philadelphia in March last year on all 137 counts of thievery and corruption with which he was charged by the US Government.

He is serving 55 months jail time.

State governor Ed Rendell fired the chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Mitchell Rubin last spring because of his involvement with Fumo's racketeering.

Rubin's wife Ruth was an aide to Fumo and was also convicted of some 45 counts of thievery.

earlier report:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4069

TOLLROADSnews 2010-01-22