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Hershey Media Report 4/14/17
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Federal judge sentences former Rendell top aide to probation
Apr 13, 2017 | Associated Press
By Mark Scolforo
The former chief of staff to then-Gov. Ed Rendell was sentenced Thursday to a year of probation after pleading guilty last year to felony wire fraud for taking thousands of dollars from a fake company set up by the FBI in a public corruption investigation. -
Ex-Rendell aide John Estey avoids prison for $13K scam against the FBI
Apr 13, 2017 | Patriot News (Pennsylvania Live)
By Matt Miller
With undisguised sympathy, a federal judge Thursday afternoon sentenced former Ed Rendell aide and ex-Hershey Trust Company executive John Estey to 1 year of probation for stealing $13,000 from the FBI. -
Estey, former Gov. Rendell's chief of staff, sentenced for wire fraud
Apr 13, 2017 | Philadelphia Business Journal
By Alison Burdo and Jeff Blumenthal
John Estey, once an aide to former Gov. Ed Rendell, avoided jail time Thursday when a judge reportedly sentenced him to a year of probation for stealing thousands of dollars from the FBI. -
John Estey, former top aide to Rendell, gets probation in pay-to-play probe
Apr 13, 2017 | Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jeremy Roebuck
John H. Estey — a former top aide to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell whose role as an FBI cooperator fueled a probe of the capital’s pay-to-play culture — was sentenced to one year of probation Thursday for wire fraud.
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Federal judge sentences former Rendell top aide to probation
Apr 13, 2017 | Associated Press
By Mark Scolforo
The former chief of staff to then-Gov. Ed Rendell was sentenced Thursday to a year of probation after pleading guilty last year to felony wire fraud for taking thousands of dollars from a fake company set up by the FBI in a public corruption investigation.
U.S. District Judge John Jones told John H. Estey that he has beaten himself up enough over the crime and that putting him behind bars wouldn't accomplish anything.
"This is both a sentencing and a pep talk," Jones told Estey. "It's time to turn the page."
Prosecutors say Estey, 54, accepted $20,000 in what he thought were campaign donations he would pass along to state lawmakers to hide the company's involvement. He made just $7,000 in donations and converted the remaining $13,000 for his own use.
Estey was ordered to pay $5,100 in fines and fees and perform 100 hours of community service. He can't work as a registered lobbyist while on probation.
The judge made no mention of the $20,000 in FBI money. In a sentencing memo his lawyers filed last month, they said Estey had tried to pay all $20,000 to the court clerk, but the probation office said he could not until after sentencing. He and his lawyers declined to discuss it after the hearing, but the U.S. attorney's office said the plea agreement requires $13,000 in restitution.
Estey told Jones he feels he lost his way before committing the crime.
"I slipped down into a black hole of moral relativism," Estey said.
Estey was a top aide to Rendell when Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia. He also served as chief of staff and senior adviser to the Democratic governor from 2003 until 2008.
In advance of the sentencing, Estey submitted dozens of letters supporting him from civic and political leaders, lawyers, people who served with him in state government and members of his immediate family. Jones said it was unlike anything he had seen as a judge, calling the letters "poignant, direct, impactful."
"I am convinced this is utterly aberrational," Jones said, at one point reassuring the defendant: "This can't be a pleasant thing for you."
Rendell's letter, dated March 1, said Estey was "as honest and moral a person as anybody I've ever had the pleasure to work with."
Estey owned a Philadelphia-based lobbying firm that, from fall 2009 to mid-2011, represented the FBI's "Undercover Corp.," or UCC, and met with the agents who purported to be company executives.
Prosecutors said Estey told them campaign money would help them get legislation passed and that the targeted lawmakers would know the donations from him were really from UCC. State law bans corporate political donations.
Estey was fired as executive vice president of the Hershey Trust Co. after news of his plea deal, and he relinquished his Pennsylvania law license in January.
His lawyers' heavily redacted sentencing memo said Estey has been working as an executive with a startup technology company based in Harrisonsburg, Virginia, and has no plans to ever work again as a lobbyist.
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Ex-Rendell aide John Estey avoids prison for $13K scam against the FBI
Apr 13, 2017 | Patriot News (Pennsylvania Live)
By Matt Miller
With undisguised sympathy, a federal judge Thursday afternoon sentenced former Ed Rendell aide and ex-Hershey Trust Company executive John Estey to 1 year of probation for stealing $13,000 from the FBI.
U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III even told the 54-year-old Estey to stop punishing himself for the crime, and to move on to other accomplishments.
"This is both a sentencing and a pep talk," Jones said. "It's time to turn the page."
Estey stood before Jones because he pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge for stealing part of the money undercover FBI agents gave him during a probe of government corruption.
The Ardmore man was supposed to use that money to sway legislators to vote in favor of measures that would advance interests of a sham company the FBI set up for its investigation. Instead, Estey used only $7,000 to make campaign contributions to the targets and kept the rest for himself, investigators said.
Jones imposed the probation sentence, plus a maximum allowable fine of $5,000 and an order for Estey to perform 100 hours of community service, at the end of a half-hour hearing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Consiglio agreed that a probation sentence would be a fair resolution to the Estey case.
Estey had a lot of people on his side. More than 50 of them, including ex-Gov. Rendell, wrote letters to the judge praising his character.
"Those speak volumes about this particular individual," Jones said.
Estey had begged for a probation term in a sentencing memorandum where he called himself "arrogant and stupid."
"This case has some tragic aspects," defense attorney Ronald H. Levine said. "He went off the rails."
For Estey, it was quite a train wreck.
His arrest tarnished a reputation he earned as a top Rendell aide starting when the Democrat was mayor of Philadelphia. Estey was the governor's chief of staff from 2003 to 2008, the was a senior advisor until 2008.
He was executive vice president for administration at Hershey Trust Company from 2012 to 2016, and served as interim president of Milton Hershey School in 2013 and 2014. The company fired him immediately after he was charged by the feds.
Estey pleaded guilty to the wire fraud count last May. He surrendered his law license and was disbarred by the state Supreme Court.
Yet Estey has worked hard to make amends and had shown "consistent evidence of a man seeking to atone."
"I've spent five years regretting and thinking about my conduct," Estey said when it was his turn to speak. "I lost my way...I slipped down into a black hole of moral relativism."
He vowed to recommit himself to public service. "All I can ask, your honor, is that you take into account the full experience of my life," Estey said.
Jones said he didn't doubt Estey repentance. He said the scores of character letters he received on Estey's behalf are "impactful," and show the esteem in which Estey still is held.
"I'm convinced that this (crime) is absolutely aberrational," the judge said. "I think you've beaten yourself up enough. I think that's the first time I've ever said that to a defendant."
While he acknowledged some might misinterpret his decision, Jones said he is convinced "there's nothing to be accomplished by any term of imprisonment. It makes no sense in this case."
He sent Easy off with some words of encouragement.
"I am convinced," Jones said, "that there are better days ahead and you'll have other achievements."
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Estey, former Gov. Rendell's chief of staff, sentenced for wire fraud
Apr 13, 2017 | Philadelphia Business Journal
By Alison Burdo and Jeff Blumenthal
John Estey, once an aide to former Gov. Ed Rendell, avoided jail time Thursday when a judge reportedly sentenced him to a year of probation for stealing thousands of dollars from the FBI.
Rendell's former chief of staff entered a guilty plea last year for his role in a pay-to-play scheme that netted him about $13,000.
FBI agents posed as executives of a textbook recycling company, giving him $20,000 to then pass on to Pennsylvania lawmakers. But Estey kept more than half the money for himself.
He could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, as well as incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. PennLive reports that a federal judge sentenced Estey to the year's probation, telling him "it's time to turn the page."
Estey worked with investigators for a short time after he was caught with the sting money.
Once seen as a rising star in the legal industry, Estey was disbarred earlier this year.
He had followed in his father’s footsteps at Montgomery McCracken, before becoming a partner at Ballard Spahr. When Rendell was Philadelphia’s mayor, Estey served as deputy chief of staff from 1997 to 1999. When Rendell became governor, Estey was appointed chief of staff in 2003.
He returned in 2007 to Ballard Spahr, where he was co-chair of the government relations and regulatory affairs practice. He soon left to become a top executive at Hershey Trust Company – a job he was fired from last year when the case against him was made public.
Estey also previously served as chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, and the Independence Visitor Center.
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John Estey, former top aide to Rendell, gets probation in pay-to-play probe
Apr 13, 2017 | Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jeremy Roebuck
John H. Estey — a former top aide to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell whose role as an FBI cooperator fueled a probe of the capital’s pay-to-play culture — was sentenced to one year of probation Thursday for wire fraud.
In a hearing before U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, Estey, 54, of Ardmore, apologized for the crime that had brought him to court: pocketing $13,000 given to him in 2011 to make campaign contributions on behalf of a phony company set up by undercover investigators running an elaborate corruption sting in Harrisburg.
As soon as agents confronted him a year later, Estey came clean and provided assistance that helped investigations of other top targets, including former state Treasurer Rob McCord.
“I lost my way,” he told the court. “I lost sight of the legal and ethical underpinnings that underscore a life in public service and descended into moral relativism.
Judge Jones, noting that he expected some would misunderstand his sentence, credited Estey’s cooperation and the own acknowledgement of his guilt in the five years since.
“There’s nothing good to be accomplished by a term of imprisonment,” he said. “It makes utterly no sense. This is both a sentencing and a pep talk. It’s time to turn the page.”
The full extent and impact of Estey’s cooperation remains hazy and was only obliquely referenced in court Thursday.
But sources familiar with Estey’s role have likened him to the first domino to fall in a chain reaction that led to other indictments.
Surreptitious recordings he made in 2014 of McCord shaking down business owners for campaign donations led to the treasurer’s guilty plea to charges of attempted extortion a year later and McCord’s own decision to become a secret government cooperator.
Sources familiar with Estey’s role in the wider probe have said that he also let agents record his conversations with contacts in Pennsylvania’s political, legal, charitable and business communities.
As Mr. Rendell’s former chief of staff in Harrisburg and, before that, one of his top mayoral aides, Estey had spent two decades cultivating an extensive Rolodex. He worked in or with multiple white-shoe law firms, and at various points, also served as chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, the Independence Visitor Center and as a top official at the Hershey Trust Co.
Before sentencing, several longtime Estey contacts submitted letters to the court vouching for his character and asking the judge to be lenient.
They included former Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato, chairmen and presidents from Visit Philadelphia and the Independence Visitor Center, several Rendell-era aides and cabinet officials and the former governor himself. Mr. Rendell was not in the courtroom Thursday.
“I saw this hard-driving, effective leader go out of his way to help people who were in need,” he wrote in his letter to the judge. “He gave his heart, soul and total energy to serving me but he never forgot that both he and I served the people.”
Estey left Mr. Rendell’s administration in 2008, began working at the Ballard Spahr firm as a lawyer, and lobbyist and within a year had begun representing the executives at a Florida-based textbook recycling company that would lead to the unraveling of his career.
Unbeknownst to him, the men were undercover FBI agents. Prosecutors laid out the scheme they devised to to ensnare him in court filings last year.
The investigators set up their phony business — Textbook Bio-Solutions, based in a Fort Lauderdale strip mall — in 2009 and hired Estey, as well as a top Harrisburg lobbying firm, to make campaign contributions to help them get legislation passed to benefit the business.
They purported to want to buy books from public schools to give to “impoverished nations” or to recycle them into pellet fuel as an alternative heating source and Estey concocted a plan to ensure legislation was introduced to help them.
The agents gave him $20,000 to pass along as campaign contributions to various state lawmakers in his name, circumventing state laws that ban corporate gifts and the use of lobbyists as “pass-throughs.”
Estey kept two-thirds of that money for himself. Prosecutors have not disclosed which lawmakers received shares of the remaining $7,000.
But around the same time, a bill was introduced that would have required schools to send unwanted textbooks to licensed recycling centers. It passed the Senate unanimously, but never got a vote in the House. It was reintroduced and died again in 2011.
Estey described his role in the incident Thursday.
“I have no excuse to offer the court today,” he told the judge. “I knew what I did was wrong and I did it.
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