Ruth Arnao

Convicted former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo must pay much more in restitution to one of his victims, a federal appeals panel ruled Monday. In another rebuke to U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter, the panel said Buckwalter had imposed too light a burden on Fumo in resentencing him in 2011. The appeals court returned the case to Buckwalter to decide precisely how much Fumo should pay, but it strongly suggested he pay as much as an additional $800,000. Two years ago, Buckwalter ordered Fumo and a former aide convicted with him, Ruth Arnao, to split 50/50 about $1.6 million in restitution due a South Philadelphia civic-improvement organization.

ALITTLE MORE than two years after a federal district judge sentenced former State Sen. Vince Fumo to a 55-month prison term, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday tossed out the sentence and ordered a do-over. The 84-page decision affirmed Fumo's March 2009 conviction for bilking the state Senate, a museum and a South Philly nonprofit he founded. But the panel said that the sentence meted out by U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Buckwalter was replete with procedural errors and that he also had "abused" his discretion.

RUTH ARNAO, a longtime aide to Vince Fumo and later executive director of a nonprofit he founded, was "scared to death" she might be sent back to prison, her attorney said yesterday after her resentencing in federal court. She need not have worried about that. But U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter did stick her with half the tab - $783,264 - to repay now-defunct Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods for the fraud she and Fumo committed. Arnao, 55, was sentenced to a year and a day in July 2009 for 45 counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice, and Buckwalter resentenced her yesterday to the same amount of time.

A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel here affirmed the corruption conviction of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo today, but sent the case back to federal district court for resentencing. Fumo's one-time aide, Ruth Arnao, also is to be resentenced. The decision of the panel was not unanimous, however. U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard L. Nygaard dissented, saying he would affirm both the convictions and sentences for Fumo and Arnao. Fumo was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Buckwalter on July 14, 2009 to 55 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him in March 2009 on 137 counts of fraud, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.

The civic organization founded, funded, and then ripped off by disgraced former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo will live on. Created by Fumo under the name Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, it emerged Tuesday with a new name, a new executive director, and a renewed commitment to assisting fast-gentrifying Passyunk Avenue, east of Broad Street. The renamed Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corp. will be headed by Sam Sherman Jr., an experienced housing developer who is to be paid $77,800 yearly and work a four-day week.

The eight-year saga of the Vincent J. Fumo federal investigation ended on a subdued note Wednesday when the former state senator's chief accomplice was resentenced - to time served. Ruth Arnao, a former top Fumo aide in the Senate, was resentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter after a hearing in which prosecutors said they do not expect to appeal her sentence or the one given Fumo last week. Ordered by an appeals court to redo sentencing hearings for Fumo and Arnao, Buckwalter simply reinstated Arnao's one-year term.

The prosecutors of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo fired back at the federal judge in the case Saturday, saying that his criticism of them was "fundamentally wrong and markedly unfair. " In a rare weekend court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorneys John J. Pease and Robert A. Zauzmer said U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter had improperly chastised them for "overcharging" Fumo, who was convicted of 137 criminal counts. "The number of charges represents not 'overcharging,' but the fact that the defendants engaged in a literal crime spree for more than 15 years, engaging in dozens of separate and lengthy schemes, which are carefully detailed in a minimal number of counts," they wrote.

Convicted former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo must pay much more in restitution to one of his victims, a federal appeals panel ruled Monday. In another rebuke to U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter, the panel said Buckwalter had imposed too light a burden on Fumo in resentencing him in 2011. The appeals court returned the case to Buckwalter to decide precisely how much Fumo should pay, but it strongly suggested he pay as much as an additional $800,000. Two years ago, Buckwalter ordered Fumo and a former aide convicted with him, Ruth Arnao, to split 50/50 about $1.6 million in restitution due a South Philadelphia civic-improvement organization.

Imprisoned former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo may well have to pay an additional $800,000 in restitution, judging from the tenor of questioning Friday by appellate judges considering a government appeal of Fumo's financial penalty. The U.S. prosecutors who won his fraud conviction have challenged part of his punishment, in which the sentencing judge ordered a former Fumo aide to pay half the restitution to one of the victims in the fraud. U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter ordered Fumo and the convicted ex-aide, Ruth Arnao, to split evenly the payment of almost $1.6 million owed to a South Philadelphia civic organization once known as Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.

Imprisoned former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo may well have to pay another $800,000 in restitution, judging from the tenor of questioning Friday by appellate judges considering a government appeal of Fumo's financial penalty. The U.S. prosecutors who won his conviction have challenged part of his punishment, in which the sentencing judge ordered a former Fumo aide to pay half the restitution to one of the victims in the fraud. U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter ordered Fumo and the convicted ex-aide, Ruth Arnao, to split 50/50 payment of almost $1.6 million owed a South Philadelphia civic organization, once known as Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.

And now, because some sagas never end, we face another round of the U.S. vs. Vince Fumo. The feds, after winning their case against the former political powerhouse in March 2009 and after losing an effort to greatly extend his prison time last November, are back again. They want about $800,000 more from The Vince in restitution payments; this after just getting another $1 million-plus from the sale of Fumo's Fort Lauderdale house. It sold in April for $2.3 million.

  Top officials at Philadelphia International Airport say they were never informed that the son of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo had acquired a share in an airport cheesesteak franchise, but they're not sure they care. "We probably will take a look at it," James Tyrrell, city deputy director of aviation, said in a telephone interview last week. "We really need to discuss it. I don't know if this is something we should be overly concerned about. " Vincent E. Fumo II filed suit in Common Pleas Court on March 29, complaining that he had paid $150,000 in 2009 for a 30 percent share of the cheesesteak business, but had received less than half the return promised - "a guaranteed return of $50,000 a year for every year that the restaurant was in business.

RUTH ARNAO, a longtime aide to Vince Fumo and later executive director of a nonprofit he founded, was "scared to death" she might be sent back to prison, her attorney said yesterday after her resentencing in federal court. She need not have worried about that. But U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter did stick her with half the tab - $783,264 - to repay now-defunct Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods for the fraud she and Fumo committed. Arnao, 55, was sentenced to a year and a day in July 2009 for 45 counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice, and Buckwalter resentenced her yesterday to the same amount of time.

The eight-year saga of the Vincent J. Fumo federal investigation ended on a subdued note Wednesday when the former state senator's chief accomplice was resentenced - to time served. Ruth Arnao, a former top Fumo aide in the Senate, was resentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter after a hearing in which prosecutors said they did not expect to appeal her sentence or the one given Fumo last week. Ordered by an appeals court to redo sentencing hearings for Fumo and Arnao, Buckwalter simply reinstated Arnao's one-year term.