PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A federal jury is expected to get the fraud and bribery case on Tuesday against two former executives of Kenny Gamble’s multi-million dollar nonprofit Universal Companies. The two were acquitted of similar charges, along with City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, at an earlier trial.
Former CEO Rahim Islam and former CFO Shahied Dawan were indicted, along with Johnson, more than four years ago. After a pandemic delay and a mistrial, they were acquitted of the charges involving Johnson in 2022.
The charges in the current case involve Islam and Dawan’s salaries, bonuses and expenses. They are accused of defrauding the company and bribing a Milwaukee school official by buying books from him so he’d grant the company a second charter school there.
In closing arguments, Islam’s lawyer said there was no bribe, arguing that Islam bought books from the Milwaukee official for a cultural center he was planning to open. The Milwaukee school official, who testified for the government, said he never connected the book sale to any action he took, and that Dawan had no role in the sale, the defense noted.
The attorney also said Islam earned his salary and bonuses, and any personal expenses he submitted for reimbursement were mistakes, not fraud.
Dawan’s attorney added that Dawan got no benefit from the misreported expenses and had no role in the payment to the school official except to cut the check.