At the center of the sting: A look at Tyron Ali
By Jeff Gammage and Craig R. McCoy, The Philadelphia Inquirer | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
It was a gut instinct, based on what he saw and how the lobbyist approached him at political events.
"He was one of those braggadocio guys, showing money and checks," Williams said. " 'I can help you. I'm helping people.' I told him, 'No, man.' "
Five
Today the roiling controversy triggered by
By now everyone knows Ali slipped from beneath a mountain of fraud charges in exchange for his efforts to ensnare corrupt politicians.
But who is the man the government chose as its key informant?
He's wily, determined, fast-talking, someone who can squeeze out of a tight spot. He speaks with the clipped diction of a college professor and wears the uniform of a high-end banker: pin-striped suit, cuff links, a
He has been the target of two grand juries that examined his alleged criminal behavior. He has been sued repeatedly for debts by plaintiffs who won default judgments. He has been accused in civil court of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from people to whom he promised large returns.
Ali's lawyer,
Others find him fascinating: A guy who hung at the edges of politics, dropping names of elected officials, mostly Democrats, as if they were dollar bills, emerges at the heart of a sting scandal?
"I never really knew what he did for a living," said
Ali, 40, haunted the second floor of
When Mayor
"At the end of the day," Ali told then-State Rep.
Remembering the cannoli
Work with them he did, a genie seeking to fulfill wishes large and small.
When State Rep.
Bishop was taped accepting a total of
Ali shopped at Boyds and
He always picked up the tab.
Ali loved the Palm on
The people he met there did not know whom they were dealing with -- and not just because he wore a wire. The guy who talked like a university scholar never got past high school.
In a biography submitted in an application for state grant money, Ali said he graduated from
He falsely claimed to have an undergraduate degree from
Ali says he graduated from a
While he is routinely described as a lobbyist, his registration expired 15 months ago.
For all his obsession with politics, Ali is not a registered voter.
In
He has been sued nine times in
"He's a true con man," said
The grand jury inquiry into his operation of a day-care center resulted in hundreds of charges. Prosecutors say Ali used the Logan Child Care and
All told, according to court records, Ali is alleged to have taken at least
In
'I didn't do it'
There has been debate about the scope of Ali's financial wrongdoing. In subsequent court filings, prosecutors said they believed the fraud was smaller.
"To the end, he swore to me he was completely honest," said
They reconnected at a political fund-raiser, and Ali told him the child-center finances were under scrutiny. He asked Kissel to help organize his argument of innocence.
"He said, 'The state is demanding all these things . . . and I didn't do it.' "
But Ali did not go to trial.
He hatched a deal with prosecutors to go undercover, telling them he could snag corrupt politicians. The government fitted him with a wire and sent him to meet with elected officials in
In
She shut it down. About eight months after she took office, she also dropped the charges against Ali.
On
Today Ali is a free man, his whereabouts unknown.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I couldn't believe they would let a piece of vermin like this off the hook."
Gifts, grants, and contributions
Ali liked the collections business. At a 2011 meeting captured on tape, he implored Tynes to give him a contract to collect unpaid traffic fines in
Kissel was a contractor there. In 2001, he and Ali started
In 2003 the company received a
Ali wanted the state to give him more money, and to help him hire someone to raise more. In a grant application, he laid out his plan to hire a fund-raiser to identify foundations, corporations, and people who could support the credit-counseling business financially.
The state turned him down. But Ali took in large amounts from other sources -- people to whom he promised huge and quick returns in exchange for loans. When he did not pay them back, some filed suit to try to get their money back.
Soroush, the
Soroush, introduced to Ali by a mutual friend, initially saw a chance to make money while helping people keep their homes. He made four loans to Ali totaling
When Soroush sued, Ali filed a motion to freeze the lawsuit, saying the allegations against him were "the subject of an ongoing state criminal grand jury investigation." Ali intended to avoid testifying by invoking his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination, he said in court papers.
Soroush eventually got back part of his money. But Ali and his credit association were not finished in court.
In
Bley told her to write checks to him or Ali, claiming the money would be repaid with high interest. In 2011 the case was settled out of court.
Not everyone lost out dealing with Ali.
"I made money off of him," said Maasi Smith, a
"He has a good business mind, and he was smart,"
Day-care operation
By the time
The scam was simple: State regulations required Ali to provide accurate accounts of the costs of running the center and providing the meals. The state would then reimburse him through a deposit to the center's
Almost immediately, state
Kissel, who was not involved in the day-care operation, said Ali told him he had paid the meal providers -- twice in some cases.
"He showed me hundreds and hundreds of checks to his providers," Kissel said.
On Friday, the
In
For instance, Ali:
Paid
Paid
Gave his mother,
Ali was arrested in 2009 by investigators who said he had written thousands of dollars' worth of checks to himself each month. The money went for fine restaurants, clothes, and travel -- and to pay
He was held in
At his favored spot, the Palm, frequent diners can get their portraits on the wall in two ways: One is to cash in points earned through a loyalty program. The other is to be placed there at the management's discretion, as was done for Ali.
"Eighteen months ago, he came up to me at the Palm and told me, 'I can raise money for the
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215-854-4906 @JeffGammage
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Staff writers
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