Federal prosecutors lodged a bigger criminal fraud case this week against state Sen. Vincent Fumo -- $1.5 million bigger, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

The trial memorandum from the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District alleges that the Philadelphia Democrat defrauded the Senate, a museum and a nonprofit group of $3.5 million. That's far more than the $2 million estimate that prosecutors used in Mr. Fumo's 2007 indictment.

The new filing is a bigger deal also because it names Mitchell Rubin, chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, as a "ghost" employee of the senator. The document states he "was paid $30,000 per year for five years, in return for no work at all."

Mr. Rubin is a friend of Mr. Fumo and the husband of the senator's friend and co-defendant, Ruth Arnao, who is accused of running a Philadelphia nonprofit that spent $600,000 to renovate the senator's district office and $250,000 on political polling. Both have pleaded not guilty. Two other co-defendants admitted destroying e-mail evidence and are expected to testify against Mr. Fumo when the trial opens next month.

As to his part in the case, Mr. Rubin did not return a call this week from The Associated Press, and a turnpike spokesman told the Post-Gazette that the commission has not issued a statement about the description of him as a Fumo ghost employee because the allegation has nothing to do with the highway.

We beg to differ.

The turnpike is an instrument of state government with four commissioners appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate (the fifth is the transportation secretary) to oversee the state's 537-mile system and its $593 million in annual tolls collected. They are positions of trust that should be filled by people with integrity. The commissioners serve part-time but they receive generous compensation, like Chairman Rubin's $28,500 a year.

The history of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is already pockmarked with patronage and politics. To have its chairman named as a ghost employee of a senator under indictment only adds to that shabby lore.

Mitchell Rubin has not been charged, but his characterization by federal prosecutors cries out for a public explanation. It might even call for a leave of absence.

For the turnpike this cloud arrives at an inopportune time. The agency is fighting the governor's plan to turn over the turnpike to a private firm that would run it for 75 years. It instead is arguing that the turnpike be given Interstate 80 to toll and to operate, as a way to generate more funds for the state's roads and bridges.

On the issue of its future, the turnpike says trust me. But when its chairman is labeled by the feds as a ghost employee, all is silent. It's hard for Pennsylvanians to put trust in that.