Vince Fumo as King Lear
The jailed former state senator tinkers with a loan his children gave him from their trust fund.
AN ATTORNEY for jailed former state Sen. Vince Fumo complained in court yesterday that the once powerful Democrat, in a legal battle with his daughter, has been cast as King Lear, the tragic figure who goes mad trying to leave his holdings to his children.
Normally you could chalk that up to overblown legal rhetoric.
But with Fumo, who has a long history of relationships dissolving into disputes, attorney Thomas Leonard was spot on with the Shakespearean reference.
The fight involves a trust fund Fumo set up with $3.2 million in 2006 for two of his three children, Vince Fumo Jr. and Allison Fumo. He has been long estranged from his third child, Nicole.
Fumo was indicted on federal corruption charges a year later.
In 2009, his children agreed to loan him $1.4 million from the trust fund for four years.
The terms of the loan were modified twice by close friends who Fumo put in charge of the trust fund. Attorneys for Allison Fumo said those changes were a benefit for her father at her expense.
After tearing up during testimony about her lack of trust in her father in a hearing Tuesday, Allison, 23, was not in court yesterday.
Her attorneys said the modifications extended the loan, first to 2015 and then to 2040, while cutting the interest rate from 5 percent to 4.5 percent to 2.8 percent. The terms at one point said the loan would be immediately repaid if Fumo, who at 70 has suffered three heart attacks, were to die. That was later removed.
Allison is asking Common Pleas Judge Joseph O'Keefe to put the fund in the hands of an independent trustee or dissolve it, which would give her a share of the money.
The trust fund rules say Fumo's children can't withdraw money until they turn 40.
Vince Fumo Jr., now 44, has withdrawn $553,000 from the fund, leaving it with a balance of $612,473.
Allison's attorneys are challenging her father's attempt to install Anthony Repici, a close friend for five decades, as the new trustee for the fund.
Repici, a medical doctor and attorney, testified yesterday that he was Fumo's personal physician for 25 years and once had the office next door to Fumo's office when both worked for a law firm.
Repici, who wrote a letter asking a federal judge for leniency when Fumo was being sentenced to prison on corruption charges, insisted he would look out for Allison's best interests as trustee for the fund.
"You're confusing an issue," Repici told one of her attorneys. "My friendship with Vince Fumo has nothing to do with my responsibility to her."
Allison's attorneys, who filed their challenge in October, were clearly concerned about what appeared to be a rush to install Repici in the last three weeks. Repici would replace Samuel Bennett, a Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission maintenance worker who is the brother-in-law of Fumo's fiancée, Carolyn Zinni.
Bennett replaced Rosanne Pauciello, a South Philly ward leader and long-time Fumo confidant, who was the original trustee for the fund.
O'Keefe told attorneys to file briefs with their final argument by July 29. He did not rule on a request from Leonard to keep the case open until Fumo returns to Philadelphia from federal prison in Ashland, Ky.
Fumo is expected to spend time in a local halfway house and on house arrest, starting in August and is due to be released Feb. 2.