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.
Full story: Kilpatrick Indicted in Criminal Ring – NYTimes.com