Prosecutors Want $4.5M From Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Federal prosecutors want former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to pay about $4.5 million for widespread corruption under his watch.
Kilpatrick began a 28-year prison sentence in October for rigging contracts, taking bribes and putting his own price on public business.
Prosecutors on Thursday filed their recommendation for payment from Kilpatrick. A Dec. 10 hearing is planned in Detroit on the issue before U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds, who also will decide payment for Kilpatrick's pal, Bobby Ferguson, an excavator convicted in the case.
Edmunds has filed a preliminary order for Ferguson to pay about $6.3 million in the case. Kilpatrick and Ferguson were convicted in federal court in March.
Edmunds said Kilpatrick's enterprise started while he was still in the state House of Representatives and continued through all six years he was in the mayor's office. The scheme to steer contracts to Ferguson made projects more costly for a city that couldn't afford it and drove contractors out of business, Edmunds said.
Ferguson was sentenced to 21 years in prison for his role in the corruption scandal.
Click here to catch up on the Detroit Corruption case.
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