Pa. Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, charged with stealing more than $500,000 from her own charity, will resign
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| Movita Johnson-Harrell |
Johnson-Harrell used her nonprofit to enrich herself, stealing more than $500,000 from the organization to spend on real estate, vacations, luxury clothing — and her bid for the legislature, State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a morning news conference in Harrisburg.
“There will be a guilty plea that will be worked out, and you will see the details of that soon," Shapiro said.
“I am saddened and dismayed by the nature of the allegations brought against me today. I vigorously dispute many of these allegations, which generally pertain to before I took office and I intend to accept responsibility for any actions that were inappropriate,” Johnson-Harrell said in a statement through her attorney.
Paying bills and spending lavishly
Prosecutors said Johnson-Harrell used the nonprofit, Motivations Education & Consultation Associates (MECA), which she established more than a decade ago to assist poor people struggling with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness, for profligate spending and personal gain.
Over several years, Johnson-Harrell tried to systematically cover up her crimes through an elaborate, years-long scheme involving several properties in Philadelphia and false financial statements, Shapiro said.
Among Johnson-Harrell’s steps to obscure her financial situation and avoid paying taxes or debts were inflating her tax bills, hiding the charity’s money through false record-keeping, not reporting the money she was taking from MECA as income, and reporting her real salary as lower than it was, prosecutors said.
“MECA’s actual mission was to serve as a cash account for Johnson-Harrell’s own personal use,” Shapiro said.
Among the funds used was $12,500 Johnson-Harrell allegedly transferred from MECA to the Friends of Movita campaign committee during her run for legislature earlier this year and told the campaign to record as a $15,000 personal loan she was making to the committee.
Then, toward the end of the campaign, as it was running out of money, Johnson deposited a $30,000 bank check she’d taken out after transferring MECA funds to her own account into the Friends of Movita account, withdrew half in cash, and left the rest for the campaign as an unreported loan, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
Johnson-Harrell also funneled $12,000 in MECA funds to Friends of Movita during a previous unsuccessful run for the same seat in 2015 and 2016, authorities said.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who has known Johnson-Harrell for many years, said she was surprised by the criminal charges.
“I’ve only seen her doing a great job. I’m sorry to hear it. No win in that, because she loves her community and served it well,” Blackwell said. “Things happen, but I’m hoping for the best, but we’ll just have to see what happens.”
With MECA funds, Johnson-Harrell spent $16,000 on vacations in 2017, including a two-week vacation with a relative to a resort in Acapulco in April and a second trip to Mexico in November. She also dropped $5,500 on four fox fur coats weeks after she filed for bankruptcy in 2018, according to prosecutors. She allegedly spent $13,000 in total on online shopping, including on designer clothing.
Johnson-Harrell was spending the organization’s money as homes MECA ran for disadvantaged Philadelphians — partly funded by Medicaid and Social Security disability checks for residents — were falling into uninhabitable squalor, Shapiro said.
The attorney general’s investigation was sparked by Johnson-Harrell’s closure of one of the homes in 2018 after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services threatened to shut it down.
Even after it was shuttered, prosecutors say, Johnson-Harrell continued taking monthly rent payments from MECA for the property, which she owned, for the rest of the year, totaling $50,000.
“When her personal checking account was low, she simply refilled it with money from MECA’s account,” Shapiro said.
In 2017, Johnson-Harrell used some of the charity’s money to twice donate to Larry Krasner’s campaign for district attorney, giving $2,500 in total and making each donation immediately after transferring money from MECA to her personal account. She also gave $500 to then-candidate Joe Khan, who Krasner beat in the primary. She would become a supervisor in the Victim/Witness Services Unit of Krasner’s District Attorney’s Office the following year.
She also used the money to pay the City of Philadelphia with checks labeled “taxes,” as well as overdue gas bills, back taxes to the IRS, an overdue water bill, tuition for her grandchildren’s private school, and past-due car payments. She paid $7,979 in restitution for a 2014 criminal conviction for not paying unemployment compensation taxes.
As Johnson-Harrell filed for bankruptcy in 2018, contending with the foreclosure of some of her properties, prosecutors say she obscured and misrepresented her money and assets, claiming she earned tens of thousands of dollars less than she did.
Johnson-Harrell moved tens of thousands of dollars out of her bank by check, making the money invisible in bank statements, while claiming that she had only about $1,000 a month to pay toward her debts, prosecutors said.
She also overstated her expenses in tax returns and lied on her financial disclosure statement when she worked for Krasner’s office and when she ran for the House, according to the affidavit.
In addition, prosecutors say, she told a court she was selling a three-parcel property on Powelton Avenue. Instead, they said, set up a “straw purchase” in which she planned to have an acquaintance buy the property and eventually return the title to her.
‘Those elected to serve have to follow the law’
Johnson-Harrell, 53, was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Pennsylvania state legislature. Reducing gun violence has been her top issue as a lawmaker. Her father, brother, and 18-year-old son were all killed by gun violence.
She was elected to represent the 190th Legislative District in West Philadelphia after Vanessa Lowery Brown was convicted of bribery and other charges and resigned last December.
Johnson-Harrell’s arrest marks the 60th arrest of a public official by the attorney general’s office since 2017, Shapiro said.
“Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell remains a woman dedicated to ending gun violence in Philadelphia and focused on the well-being of all Philadelphians,” her lawyer, Jessica Natali, said in a statement. “This matter will be resolved with the attorney general’s office and ultimate disposition will be addressed in a court room at an appropriate time.”
Shapiro said Johnson-Harrell had turned tragedies into triumphs and used her experience to help others.
“It is not lost on me that Rep. Johnson-Harrell has faced serious struggles in her personal life,” Shapiro said, but, “Defrauding a non-profit, defrauding taxpayers, and then systematically lying over many years to cover it up is unjust, it’s unfair and it’s a crime.... She is going to spend time behind bars.”
House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody said the 190th District’s constituent service office would remain open to serve residents until a new representative is elected in 2020.
“These criminal charges are beyond disturbing. Representative Johnson-Harrell is taking responsibility for what she did and I expect her to resign very soon. She obviously cannot continue serving in elected office," Dermody said in a statement.
“I know her commitment to her constituents — especially to the goal of ending gun violence in Philadelphia — is heartfelt and sincere. ... But the fact is those elected to serve have to follow the law before they can make the law.”
Her predecessor
Pa. Rep. Vanessa Brown gets probation for bribery in Philly sting case
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