How Bobby Henon’s sentence compares with other bribery cases

Former Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon was sentenced to 3½ years in federal prison Wednesday for accepting bribes — in the form of a union salary and other perks — from labor leader John J. Dougherty.

Here’s how his sentence compares with punishments other local public officials received in bribery cases and related crimes:

Bobby Henon, a three-term Democrat who represented Northeast Philadelphia before his 2021 conviction, was convicted of accepting a $70,000-a-year union salary and other perks from Dougherty, the then-head of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Prosecutors contended that Henon did next to nothing for the union to earn the money. Instead, they said, he sold the powers of his Council office to Dougherty, allowing him to advance his personal and professional aims. Henon was sentenced to 3½ years Wednesday.

Ed Pawlowski, the former mayor of Allentown, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars in 2018 for trading city contracts in exchange for bribes in the form of campaign donations.

Seth Williams, Philadelphia’s former district attorney, was charged in 2017 with accepting cash, luxury goods, and all-expenses-paid travel from benefactors who sought his help with various legal hurdles. He pleaded guilty to one of the counts in a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Chaka Fattah, a Democrat who represented the Second Congressional District from 1995 to 2016, was convicted in 2016 of stealing federal grant funds, charitable donations, and campaign cash and accepting bribes. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, one of the longest terms of incarceration ever imposed on a member of Congress for federal corruption crimes. Fattah was released in 2020 to serve the rest of his sentence either in a transitional facility or under house arrest.

Rick Mariano was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, fraud, and tax charges for accepting nearly $30,000 from businessmen in exchange for regulatory favors, tax breaks, cheap city land, and a suspect schools contract. He served just over four years of a 6½-year sentence.

Corey Kemp, the former Philadelphia treasurer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 after a jury found him guilty of selling his office for Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Game tickets, limo rides, a free deck on his house, and $10,000 cash.

Jimmy Tayoun was charged in 1991 with 10 counts of racketeering, mail fraud, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice in connection with the payment and receipt of money in exchange for political favors. Tayoun avoided trial by pleading guilty days after being indicted, and spent 40 months in prison. He died in 2017.

Michael “Ozzie” Myers, elected in 1976 to represent South Philadelphia in Congress, was ensnared in the FBI’s Abscam sting in 1979. He was caught on videotape accepting a suitcase with $50,000 in cash from an FBI undercover agent masquerading as a bagman for a fictitious Arab sheikh. The tape also recorded Myers saying, “Money talks in this business, and bull— walks.” Myers was expelled from the House in 1980, convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges, and sentenced to three years in prison in 1981. In 2020, Myers, working as a campaign consultant, was charged by federal prosecutors with paying a South Philadelphia judge of elections to fraudulently add votes for candidates who had hired him for their races from 2014 to 2016.

Ray Lederer, from Pennsylvania’s Third Congressional District, also was caught in the Abscam sting. Despite the corruption allegations, he won reelection in 1980 but resigned from Congress a year later after his conviction. Lederer served 10 months in prison, and died in his Fishtown childhood home in 2008.

George Schwartz was a city councilman for 20 years and was Council president for eight, but his career began to unravel when he was caught on tape accepting $30,000 from undercover FBI agents in the Abscam corruption sting. Promising to use his influence to sway other Council members, Schwartz said: “We got five or six members. You tell me your birthday. I’ll give them to you for your birthday.” Schwartz was convicted in 1980 of conspiracy and extortion, and spent one year and a day in prison. He died in 2010.

Two other Council members, Harry P. Jannotti and Louis C. Johanson, were also nabbed in the Abscam sting. Jannotti was sentenced to six months in prison, and Johanson to three years.

State Sen. “Buddy” Cianfrani pleaded guilty in 1977 to charges of racketeering, bribery, and obstruction of justice, and pleaded no contest to tax evasion for arranging no-work jobs on the state Senate payroll for “ghost employees,” and for accepting bribes to influence the admission of students to medical and veterinary schools. He was sentenced to five years in prison but was released after 27 months.

Upon Cianfrani’s release from prison in 1980, friends and political allies of the cigar-smoking power broker with an earthy charm gave him a party at Palumbo’s in South Philadelphia. Cianfrani later became an influential South Philadelphia ward leader before his death in 2002.