Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams could be facing penalties for his late disclosure of gifts he received while in office.
Williams recently filed a 34-page accounting of $160,000 worth of gifts he's received from 2010 to 2015. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The gifts range from personal to professional.
Williams reported receiving a free $45,000 roof repair on his home from a New Jersey builder, cash gifts of $1,500 and $10,000 from friends, and $20,800 in free airfare and lodging for vacations to Key West, Las Vegas, Virginia, and the Dominican Republic.
Williams also received $10,000 in travel expenses for an Eisenhower Fellowship program in Australia and South Africa, $5,000 from the Ministry of Justice of Thailand to travel there to teach leadership classes, and free trips to several state and national prosecutorial forums.
Williams' lawyer, Sam Stretton, characterized the failure to disclose as an issue of poor record keeping, rather than an attempt to deceive by Williams. Stretton called it "a terrible mistake" and said that Williams "wasn't paying attention" to the reporting rules and thought some of the gifts didn't necessitate reporting because they were from close friends.
Williams may face significant civil penalties for his failure to disclose in a timely fashion. From Newsworks:
On the city level, Williams could face up to a $1,000 civil fine per undisclosed gift. And on state level, penalties can be even stiffer, though they start at $250 for each violation.
"If a public official didn't file a form as prescribed by the law, the public official then can be penalized up to amount of their compensation for holding the position," said Robert Caruso, executive director of the State Ethics Commission.
For Williams, that would be around $175,000, his annual salary.
Newsworks reports that the filing comes "a year after reports that the FBI and IRS were probing Williams' personal and professional finances." However, Stretton has no knowledge of any federal case.
"Whether there is a federal investigation, I honestly don't know," said Stretton. "But this would help him by filing these [amended reports] if there was."
Williams has been controversial in Philadelphia. His previous financial misdeeds have been reported here before, as well as his office’s problematic handling of high-profile cases, particularly those of Anthony Wright and Terry Williams.
Yet he recently led the way in his commitment to critical juvenile justice reform. Philadelphia has had 300 inmates serving life without parole for crimes they committed while juveniles—more than anywhere else in the country. In May, Williams made the courageous decision to refuse to recharge any of them to life without parole.