Philadelphia

Ex-US Rep. Chaka Fattah Starts 10-Year Prison Term

Chaka Fattah was sentenced to 10 years in prison for racketeering

A longtime Pennsylvania congressman convicted of racketeering has reported to a federal prison to begin his 10-year sentence.

Officials said former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah was logged in just after 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution-McKean in Lewis Run, in western Pennsylvania, near the New York border. He will be in the minimum-security camp adjacent to the medium-security prison.

The 60-year-old Democrat spent 20 years in Congress representing Philadelphia and Montgomery counties before his June conviction of taking an illegal $1 million campaign loan, then using government and nonprofit funds to repay it. Four co-defendants were also convicted.

Fattah lost his bid to stay out of prison while he appeals.

His son, Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr., is serving five years in an overlapping bank fraud case at a prison in Michigan. [[238427591, C]]

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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