The "loans" to Mr. Kilpatrick are indeed a bit of an unsavory matter. IMHO they weren’t “hush” money, though. The lenders were savvy enough to know that there could be disclosure of the payments at a later time. The better view is that Detroit benefited from this transaction. Mr. Kilpatrick’s resignation was the quid pro quo. In the fall of '08, the city was faced with the real possibility that Mr. Kilpatrick was going to drag it through a perjury trial that probably wouldn't have occurred until Spring '09. Yes, the Governor was probably going to remove the Mayor through her administrative hearing, but Mr. Kilpatrick likely would have appealed that outcome. All in all, the city was looking at many more months of the Mayoral Mess. If the loans put a stop to this and facilitated Mr. Kilpatrick's exit, it was civic charity.

[[Penske, Gilbert and the others know that they aren't getting their money back. Question for the CPA's: If the lenders don't write off the loans as bad debt, does Mr. Kilpatrick have to declare the proceeds as income? )

The most "interesting" information disclosed at the hearing was that in excess of $1million has passed through the Kilpatricks’ accounts in the past year. Despite this fact, Mr. Kilpatrick apparently claims that he has no assets from which he can satisfy his restitution obligation. Also, apparently his almost unfathomable claim is that the Kilpatricks were broke last Fall just before he resigned. How is it possible that they were broke given that in the previous seven years or so, Mr. Kilpatrick had earned approximately $1.2 million through his mayoral salary and Mrs. Kilpatrick had earned at least $100k from doing "work" for various Kilpatrick controlled foundations. The family expenses during that time, while certainly not zero, were quite low given that the city provided the family with housing, utilities, insurance, automobile, some food, and health insurance. Bling expenses were not large enough to consume all of the Kilpatricks' income. Neither did attorneys' fees given that previous disclosures have shown that campaign committee funds were used for that purpose.

Mr. Kilpatrick is clearly shifting and hiding assets. The prosecutor's office should continue to pursue this matter.