Imam surrenders to feds, starts sentence

SOME THOUGHT they'd never see the day when Shamsud-din Ali, the so-called "Teflon imam," would go back to jail.

But yesterday, Ali - a central figure in the corruption scandal that rocked City Hall - arrived at Philadelphia's federal courthouse, wearing a white shirt, cream-color jeans and a white kufi on his head.

At 1:20 p.m., he pressed the white call button inside the lobby of the U.S. Marshals Service and announced: "I'm Shamsud-din Ali and I'm here to turn myself in."

Asked if he wanted to say anything before his departure, he replied: "I'm not going anywhere."

A guard unlocked the U.S. Marshals door, and Ali walked in.

"It was a long time coming," said a onetime Muslim supporter of the cleric.

Ali, 69, of Melrose Park, had walked into the courthouse after shaking hands with longtime Muslim supporters and hugging relatives, including his stepson, Azheem Spicer, and stepdaughter, Lakiha Spicer, both of whom were convicted in a fraud scheme run by their mother, Ali's wife, Faridah.

In an ironic twist yesterday, as Ali was taken into custody, Faridah, 58, was expected to leave a federal prison for women in Danbury, Conn., where she served 15 months on racketeering and other charges. She was expected to serve her last six months in a halfway house in Philadelphia.

But yesterday, a federal Bureau of Prisons Web site still said she was being held in Danbury.

Her husband will remain in custody for 30 days at the Federal Detention Center, 7th and Race streets, before the prison bureau designates where he'll be jailed for 87 months for his conviction on charges of racketeering, commercial bribery, multiple frauds and income-tax fraud.

He served more than five years behind bars for the 1970 murder of the Rev. Clarence Smith, of Wayland Temple Baptist Church, but the conviction was overturned in 1976.

In 2005, he was convicted of operating eight illegal moneymaking schemes using his Islamic school as his headquarters. He had remained free for two years until he lost his appeal last month.

Ali and his candidates also lost an election last year to reform candidates. The reformers then took over from the Alis the Philadelphia Masjid and Sister Clara Muhammad School, at 47th Street and Wyalusing Avenue, which then had to close because four boilers were missing.

A decade ago, the Alis were sitting on top of the world. Prominent and respected, Shamsud-din Ali rubbed elbows with Gov. Rendell, Mayor Street, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey - even District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who tapped him for election support.

Other would-be movers and shakers saw the then-resident imam of the Philadelphia Masjid and director of the school as a way to get close to the power elite.

In 2002, FBI agents monitoring a drug wiretap overheard Ali talking with a major dealer about taking $5,000 to the mayor's office.

Not only did the Alis' world come crashing down, but so did a network of municipal scams. Some remain under investigation by the FBI's public-corruption squad.

Since the initial drug wiretap, at least 53 defendants have been convicted, including 33 drug dealers, the ex-city treasurer, the Alis and 17 others. Two were acquitted.

Several key figures in the probe died, including prominent attorney Ronald A. White, major drug dealer Gerald "Bubbie" Thomas, and, recently, co-defendant John Johnson.

While Ali was currying favor with political power brokers, drug dealers with whom he had long been associated complained that he was shaking them down.

In one wiretapped call, convicted drug dealer Dawud Bey said of Ali, "He's walking with kings and we're out here hustling."

His wife pressured him to tap the drug dealers for donations for the school, but instead the Alis pocketed the money, court testimony revealed.

Meantime, schoolchildren attending Sister Clara Muhammad School wore winter coats during classes because the school periodically had no heat.

Shortly after her husband was convicted in 2005, Faridah Ali pleaded nolo contendere to 18 counts, which was treated as a guilty plea. Charges included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, six counts each of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and four counts of tax evasion.

Faridah earlier had won a contract from Community College of Philadelphia to run an adult-literacy program at the Islamic school, where she was assistant director and her husband was director.

At her sentencing, she admitted scamming the college by hiring ghost teachers, including her son, daughter and nephew, for nonexistent classes and collecting $21,600 in rent for unused classrooms for an adult basic-education program run at the school .

She also submitted phony documents to extend a $200,000 line of credit at Chase Manhattan Bank and faxed fraudulent records to buy an $87,000 2002 Mercedes Benz S500V for her husband, whom she described as a "world leader."

If Faridah Ali obtains a job, she will be expected to pay a $7,500 court fine and $21,600 in restitution to the college and to forfeit $108,650 in ill-gotten gains.

She also is expected to continue her court-ordered mental-health therapy. She already forfeited her position as assistant director of the school, where she had carried out three fraud schemes.

She earlier had served a one-year home-confinement sentence in connection with an earlier 26-count fraud conviction related to a community-college scam.