April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Jurors began deliberating today on the fate of former Philadelphia Treasurer Corey Kemp and two Commerce Bancorp Inc. executives charged with granting him favors to win business for the company's Pennsylvania bank.

The seven-woman, five-man jury heard six weeks of testimony in U.S. district court in Philadelphia in a case that resulted from a three-year probe of Mayor John Street's administration. Also on trial are the mistress of deceased Street fundraiser Ron White and a Detroit restaurateur charged with helping bribe Kemp.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Zauzmer said the 381 secretly recorded phone calls and 71 witnesses presented by the government created a ``crystal clear'' picture of how Kemp was corrupted by White -- a bond attorney, Street fundraiser and board member at Commerce Bank/Pennsylvania.

``Mr. Kemp did everything that Ron White told him to do,'' Zauzmer said yesterday in a rebuttal to 12 hours of closing arguments made by defense attorneys over three days.

Kemp, 35, faces up to 798 years in prison if convicted on the fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges. The two Commerce executives, Glenn Holck, 44, and Stephen Umbrell, 45, each face up to 185 years in prison. White died of cancer in November.

Two former JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers, Anthony Snell and Charles LeCroy, pleaded guilty in January to cheating JPMorgan out of $50,000 by diverting legal fees from an Alabama bond sale to White. Snell testified in the Kemp trial last month as part of his agreement to plead guilty and accept a reduced prison sentence. A jury acquitted Denis Carlson, a former Janney Montgomery Scott banker, on charges of lying to federal agents who asked him about his dealings with White and Kemp.

`Little Corey'

Defense Attorney L. George Parry had tried to portray Kemp as ``Little Corey,'' a young man who had no hope of defying the political power possessed by White, Zauzmer said yesterday. Kemp wasn't a child, the assistant U.S. attorney said.

``He was the treasurer of the fifth-largest city in America,'' Zauzmer said. ``He was put in charge of $2 billion in investments. He was put in charge of issuing $3 billion in debt.''

Former Philadelphia Finance Director Janice Davis, Kemp's boss, testified that she would have shielded Kemp from White's overtures if asked, Zauzmer said. Instead, Kemp took gifts arranged by White including $10,000 in cash, a deck on his home and a $58,000 trip to the Super Bowl, Zauzmer said.

Loans to Kemp

Umbrell and Holck ignored bank rules and granted $225,000 in loans to help Kemp buy a house when the former treasurer had more than $40,000 in delinquent debt and rarely had more than a few dollars in his Commerce checking accounts, Zauzmer said.

The executives also signed off on a car loan for Kemp and a loan for a Kemp relative who had recently declared bankruptcy, Zauzmer said.

Zauzmer dismissed defense arguments that Holck, president of Commerce Bank/Pennsylvania, and Umbrell, a regional vice president, had the authority to override the bank's loan rules and routinely did so.

``Sure they could waive requirements,'' Zauzmer said. ``The question is why?''

City Contracts

E-mails released during the trial showed Commerce Bancorp Chairman and President Vernon Hill pressured executives to bring in business, Zauzmer said. Corrupting Kemp was a way for the two executives to meet Hill's goals, Zauzmer said.

In return, Commerce won city contracts for a $30 million line of credit, $50 million in deposits and hundreds of millions of bond underwriting, Zauzmer said.

``This stream of favorable decisions cannot be explained other than by the things given to Mr. Kemp,'' Zauzmer said.

Earlier, jurors heard closing arguments from the defense attorneys for La-Van Hawkins, a Detroit restaurant developer, and Janice Knight, the owner of a financial printing firm who has acknowledged that she was White's mistress.

Hawkins is accused of paying $10,000 to Kemp at White's request and bringing Kemp to a meeting in New York to deceive a businessman into believing Philadelphia's pension funds would help finance a purchase of some chicken restaurants. He is charged with lying to a grand jury about the payments and the New York meeting, which FBI agents secretly videotaped.

Gift

Defense attorney Anthony Chambers said Hawkins believed White in 2002 when he said Kemp was about to get married. Hawkins testified to a grand jury that, at White's request, he then gave Kemp a $5,000 check as a wedding present.

Hawkins, 47, didn't learn that Kemp had been married until FBI agents told him when they questioned him more than a year later, Chambers said. Jurors also have no proof that Hawkins approved the wiring of another $5,000 to Kemp from his personal accounts, Chambers said.

Knight, 40, didn't need White to help her printing firm win contracts, nor is there any evidence Knight funneled proceeds from her businesses to White, said her attorney Nino Tinari. Knight was good at getting business on her own, Tinari said.

``She just wasn't a wart on Ron White's arm,'' Tinari said. ``Ron White needed her more than she needed him when it came to interacting with people.''

Prosecutors allege that White got the proceeds from Knight's businesses, including a $5,000-a-month consulting fee paid by Loop Capital Markets. Knight was the consultant for Loop, not White, Tinari said.

The case is U.S. v. White et al, 2:04-CR-00370, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Pratt in Trenton, New Jersey apratt@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at at bewilliams@bloomberg.net

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