Though the Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to seek information about illegal contracts hatched during Mayor John Street's first term, the FBI has expanded its investigation to even bigger names.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the FBI is now asking questions about a deal between State Senator Vincent J. Fumo and Verizon Communications. The deal involved Fumo's push for donations from Verizon to a nonprofit group controlled by his aides.
The nonprofit group, based in South Philadelphia, is called Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods. Fumo attempted to negotiate a similar deal with Peco Energy Company.
Fumo's deal with Verizon could have coincided with a December 2000 pact Fumo made with Verizon that ended his support of the breakup of Verizon's Pennsylvania's operations.
As reported Thursday in the Inquirer, neither Fumo nor any of his staff were actually contacted by the FBI, but a statement released from his office questioned the motives of the FBI's sources as election-year tensions rise.
The FBI's wide-ranging probe began in July 2001, when federal authorities placed a wire tap on the office phone of Imam Shamsud-din Ali, a friend of the mayor.
The probe extended to Ronald White, a major fundraiser for Street, in January 2003. Federal authorities gained authorization to bug Mayor Street's office on Sept. 18, 2003, just weeks before the city's mayoral election, and the story quickly gained national attention.
Even with the media's intense focus on the FBI's probe during Street's re-election campaign, Street handily beat Republican challenger Sam Katz for the second straight time.
Street turned the probe around into a unifying declaration of conspiracy, immediately claiming the investigation was part of a larger conspiracy set in motion by the National Republican Party.
Investigators with the FBI did not return calls for comment. Street's office remains unable to comment on the status of the probe.
