Ex-Rendell aide pleading guilty in FBI campaign cash sting

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A onetime chief of staff to former Gov. Ed Rendell agreed in a court document filed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud for pocketing thousands of dollars from a fake company set up by the FBI to investigate public corruption in Pennsylvania.

John H. Estey collected $20,000 from the fake company in 2011 to make campaign contributions to state lawmakers in a way that would hide the company’s role in the donations, a plea deal filed in Harrisburg federal court said. State law bans campaign donations from corporations.

“Estey identified a number of members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly who Estey claimed would draft, introduce, control and support legislation beneficial to the business interests” of the fake company, referred to in the paperwork as Undercover Corp., or UCC, according to the criminal information document filed Friday.

Estey “indicated that campaign contributions to those legislators would be necessary to gain access to, and the attention of, those legislators and to facilitate legislative action, or inaction, favorable to the UCC,” the document said.

It said Estey agreed to give $5,000 each to three unnamed lawmakers and one unidentified “leadership caucus,” but only made $7,000 in donations, and converted $13,000 “to his own use.” Estey first met with agents posing as UCC executives in 2009, and he represented the company from 2009 through 2011 as an owner of an unidentified Philadelphia-based lobbying firm, court papers said.

Estey, 53, did not respond to a telephone message left at his Ardmore home in suburban Philadelphia. Estey became an executive with The Hershey Trust Co. in 2011. On Friday, the Hershey Trust said in a statement that it fired Estey from his job as executive vice president and that it had had no prior knowledge that Estey was a target of a federal investigation.

His defense attorney, Ronald H. Levine, said a plea hearing has not been scheduled. Levine declined to discuss the case.

“My only comment is that Mr. Estey is sorry for the mistakes he’s made,” Levine said. “He has resolved the matter with the government and he looks forward to moving on with his life.”

The U.S. attorney’s office also declined to answer questions about the case, including whether Estey is cooperating with authorities and whether the investigation is still going on. It was not clear what led investigators to Estey or why it took five years for prosecutors to file charges.

Estey was a powerful member of the Rendell administration while serving as the Democratic governor’s chief of staff from 2003 to 2007. He also was a deputy chief of staff during Rendell’s tenure as Philadelphia mayor.