The investigating grand jury issued a presentment recommending that Gottfried be charged with corrupt organizations, forgery, criminal conspiracy, theft by deception, tampering with public records, and bribery.
Gottfried was in custody yesterday afternoon awaiting a bail hearing. Gottfried's attorney, Thomas A. Bergstrom, said he had not seen the presentment and could not comment.
Yesterday's arrest was not Gottfried's first. In 1996 he pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and wire-fraud charges involving a mortgage-fraud scheme in Atlantic City, and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Gottfried's father, Leonard, then 68, pleaded guilty in the same scheme and was sentenced to four years' probation.
Charged along with Gottfried were Ronald Miller, 65, described as a criminal investigator; Mary Beth McNichol, 39, described as Gottfried's "paramour," and Margaret Porter, 42.
Authorities said they were contacting lawyers for Gottfried's three codefendants to arrange for their surrender.
Although Gottfried lived for a time in Wynnewood and other communities in the western suburbs, Abraham said he used so many addresses in the alleged fraud that it was difficult to determine exactly where he and the others lived.
According to the grand jury's report and presentment, Gottfried first appeared in Philadelphia in about August 2000 and began contacting criminal-defense lawyers in Center City offering his services as a "sentencing mitigation specialist" who could perform presentence investigations or testify as an expert at sentencing.
Within a year, the grand jury reported, Gottfried began getting work, especially from lawyers with court appointments to represent indigent defendants. Gottfried obtained a city business-privilege license and a tax account as a mitigation specialist.
