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Kilpatrick Indicted in Criminal Ring

DETROIT — The city’s imprisoned former mayor, Kwame M. Kilpatrick, and two top aides rigged contracts, collected millions of dollars in bribes and defrauded taxpayers, the federal government said on Wednesday in a 38-count indictment that characterizes Mr. Kilpatrick’s inner circle as a long-running criminal organization.

The indictment, the result of an investigation that began in 2004, also names Mr. Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard, who is accused of collecting kickbacks, and a contractor, Bobby Ferguson, who received “tens of millions of dollars” for work he either did not perform or was awarded through extortion, the authorities said.

The Kilpatrick Enterprise, as the indictment refers to the five defendants, dates to Mr. Kilpatrick’s time in the Michigan Legislature and became more powerful when he was elected mayor in 2001, Barbara L. McQuade, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said at a news conference. Also named in the indictment were Victor Mercado, who was indicted for his actions as head of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, and Derrick Miller, a former top aide to Mr. Kilpatrick, who is accused of taking bribes.

“The defendants used the power and authority of Kwame Kilpatrick’s public offices to unjustly enrich not only themselves but their families and their associates at the expense of taxpayers and donors,” Ms. McQuade said.

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Former Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick of Detroit appeared in court in May. He is in prison.Credit...Paul Sancya/Associated Press

If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, Ms. McQuade said. The charges include bribery, extortion, fraud and racketeering. The five were indicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is used to fight organized crime and allows the government to seek stiffer penalties.

Fourteen people, including the former City Council president, Monica Conyers, have already pleaded guilty to felonies in the case.

Mr. Kilpatrick, 40, is serving a prison sentence of up to five years for violating probation. He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and resigned as mayor in 2008, after text messages showed that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with his chief of staff and that he agreed to an $8.5 million settlement with police officers whom he fired to prevent the affair from being revealed. He and the chief of staff, Christine Beatty, were charged with perjury for denying their affair in court testimony.

The indictment accuses Mr. Ferguson of giving Mr. Kilpatrick at least $424,000 in kickbacks. In addition to that money, it says Mr. Kilpatrick deposited nearly $500,000 in unexplained cash.

Mr. Kilpatrick’s father put more than $600,000 into his bank accounts during the Kilpatrick administration, according to the indictment.

The indictment says that Kwame Kilpatrick used donations to a charity known as the Kilpatrick Civic Fund to pay for golf clubs, summer camp for his children, yoga classes and antibugging equipment. As a state representative, Mr. Kilpatrick diverted $280,000 in grant money meant to help the elderly and children; the funds instead went to nonprofits controlled by his wife and Mr. Ferguson, who used it for personal expenses, the indictment says.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 24 of the New York edition with the headline: Kilpatrick Is Indicted in Criminal Ring. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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