New Trouble For Kwame & Daddy?
Or is this an old story I missed?
Quote:
The wide-ranging investigation into Detroit public corruption has direct links to an East Coast sting operation that featured a fictitious insurance company run by the FBI, the Free Press has learned.
In New Jersey, the federal government successfully prosecuted 14 public officials and associates linked to bribes from federal agents and informants posing as officials for Coastal Solutions, a phony company the FBI set up to snare corrupt officials. All received prison sentences.
In Detroit, there have been no charges to date from the East Coast sting, but federal documents portray the father of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a mayoral aide as front men in a deal that would have resulted in payoffs to the Detroiters in exchange for the city hiring the fake company.
The deal never went through. But documents contend that over a period of months in 2007, Bernard Kilpatrick, mayoral aide Marc Cunningham and others were eagerly courted by officials with Coastal Solutions. Cunningham allegedly had Coastal Solutions send a $3,000 Super Bowl ticket to him at City Hall.
Bernard Kilpatrick's meetings with Coastal took him from the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to a championship fight in Las Vegas. Also in Vegas were Kwame Kilpatrick and Cunningham.
After the fight, the documents say, Cunningham left a voice mail with Coastal Solutions saying Kwame Kilpatrick favored the deal. The FBI interpreted that to mean the mayor and others were willing to do a deal in return for bribes.
Bernard Kilpatrick did not return messages over recent weeks. James Thomas, a criminal attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick, said: "Mr. Kilpatrick has not been charged and to my knowledge, he's not been indicted. Of course, he denies the allegations. It's always been my practice that I'd rather discuss this case in court, if it comes to that."
Cunningham, the mayoral aide, could not be reached for comment. Cunningham quit his job in July 2008, on the same day the Free Press reported that a cell phone assigned to him had been tapped by federal agents. Cunningham said then that he quit to pursue other opportunities.
More: http://freep.com/article/20100321/NE...to-Kilpatricks
