The former mayor of Harrisburg, Pa., was charged yesterday with dozens of counts for allegedly using city money to fund obsessive buying sprees of artifacts that helped plunge the state capital into debt, the state’s attorney general said, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Former Mayor Stephen Reed was charged with running a corrupt organization, bribery and multiple counts of theft, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane said. Reed served as Harrisburg’s mayor for 28 years, leaving in early 2010. The charges against Mr. Reed stem from an investigation into the financing of the city’s debt-ridden incinerator project, according to a grand-jury report released yesterday by Kane. The incinerator, which was supposed to generate electricity and revenue for the city, instead saddled it with $300 million in debt through a series of bonds and loans. Prosecutors alleged that Reed diverted money from those deals to fund what became an addiction to acquiring objects ranging from the Civil War and Wild West to sports memorabilia for museums that he planned.
