Fattah reports to federal prison to begin 10-year sentence

LEWIS RUN, Pa. – A longtime Pennsylvania congressman convicted of racketeering has reported to a federal prison to begin his 10-year sentence.

Officials said former U.S. Rep. Chaka (SHAH’-kuh) Fattah was logged in just after 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution-McKean in Lewis Run, in western Pennsylvania, near the New York border. He will be in the minimum-security camp adjacent to the medium-security prison.

The 60-year-old Philadelphia Democrat spent 20 years in Congress before his June conviction of taking an illegal $1 million campaign loan, then using government and non-profit funds to repay it. Four co-defendants were also convicted.

Fattah lost his bid to stay out of prison while he appeals.

His son, Chaka “Chip” Fattah Jr., is serving five years in an overlapping bank fraud case at a prison in Michigan.

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