This might qualify as the chutzpah play of the week.
The metro Detroit construction company Walbridge, which played along with Kwame Kilpatrick's 'pay to play' demands to secure contracts, is now claiming to be a victim and wants $5 million of the restitution dollars the Feds are going after in the wake of the Kwame Kilpatrick / Bobby Ferguson criminal enterprise convictions.
Yes the same company that is/was also general contractor for the ill-fated and now halted Wayne County jail project is saying it is Kwame's victim.
The US Attorney doesn't seem sympathetic but, as the saying in business goes, 'why not ask; the worst they can say is no'. Is anyone else getting out their 'world's tiniest violins'?
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade would not specifically address the Walbridge restitution claim but said companies identified in the corruption indictment share some culpability.
“In some ways, they are all culpable because they participated in a pay-to-play culture,” McQuade said. “Some are victims because they lost business after they failed to play along.”
Walbridge was among a number of contractors which agreed to pay Ferguson in order to get business, but none were charged with crimes.
...
Legal expert Peter Henning has said the companies involved in the conspiracy were going to be needed by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to help prosecute the case and that it’s “hard to distinguish” whether the payer of a bribe is also culpable of a crime.
...
Walbridge agreed to work with Ferguson in one case, according to the indictment, but rejected calls to give his company a 35 percent cut on a $140 million project, instead offering 15 percent. At one point, according to the indictment, Kwame Kilpatrick met with a high-level Walbridge official at the Manoogian Mansion, asking Walbridge to “play fair” with Ferguson.
Separately, the FBI has investigated the Wayne County jail project for more than one year and subpoenaed contracts for its general contractor, Walbridge. County prosecutors also are investigating the project, which was beset by cost overruns that led to the project being halted. No charges have been filed in that investigation.
From The Detroit News
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