Former City of Detroit Treasurer Indicted for Taking Bribes

Former City of Detroit Treasurer Jeffrey Beasley, of Chicago, Illinois, was charged in an indictment, unsealed today, with taking bribes and kickbacks in return for approving more than $200 million in investments by the two city of Detroit pension funds, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today.

Joining Ms. McQuade in the announcement was FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena.

The indictment charges that Beasley conspired with others to personally enrich himself and his co-conspirators by accepting bribes in the form of cash, travel, meals, golf clubs, drinks, gambling money, hotel stays, entertainment, Las Vegas concert tickets, massages, limousine service, private plane flights, and other things of value. These bribes to Beasley and his co-conspirators came from individuals who had business before the General Retirement System and the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit.

As city treasurer, Mr. Beasley was a member of the boards of trustees of the two pension systems, and he had a fiduciary responsibility to make decisions on investments pending before the boards in the best interests of the retirees and beneficiaries. The two Detroit pension funds suffered more than $84 million in losses from investments associated with Beasley’s bribery conspiracy. The charges were set forth in an indictment issued by a Detroit federal grand jury on January 18, 2012 that was unsealed today.

According to the six-count indictment, between January 2006 and September 2008, when Mr. Beasley served on the boards of trustees of the two pension funds, he conspired with other individuals to defraud current and retired city of Detroit employees who contributed to the two pension funds. The indictment alleges that Beasley deprived the employees of their right to honest services, including their right to Beasley’s service as a pension fund trustee, free of bribery and corruption. The indictment details the manner in which Beasley and his co-conspirators demanded and accepted bribes and kickbacks from individuals who were seeking investment monies from the two pension funds or who otherwise had business before them. The indictment alleges that Beasley personally received more than $100,000 in cash from people having business before the two pension funds. Another part of the scheme included demands by Beasley and others that individuals having business before the pension funds contribute tens of thousands of dollars to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund in order to receive approval for their investment requests.

Beasley also is charged in the indictment with five counts of extortion or attempted extortion. The indictment alleges that Beasley extorted more than $10,000 in cash from persons doing business before the two pension funds at a “birthday party” in his honor. Mr. Beasley demanded $250,000 from the owner of an investment company in exchange for Mr. Beasley’s support of $44 million in investment funds from the two pension funds. Beasley demanded and received $20,000 from Marc Andre Cunningham, an aid to former Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick, who acted as a consultant for a communications company that received $30 million in investment funds from the two pension funds. Mr. Beasley and his co-conspirators demanded and received trips, private plane flights, and lavish entertainment from an investment manager of the Police and Fire Retirement System who managed more than $150 million in properties owned by the system.

If convicted, Mr. Beasley faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the six counts of extortion, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of more than $225,000 in unlawful payments received by Mr. Beasley and his co-conspirators in connection with his extortion and the conspiracy.

Ms McQuade explained, “Employees of the city of Detroit are entitled to honest services from the trustees of their pension funds. We will prosecute public officials who abuse their positions of trust to personally enrich themselves at the expense of the people they were intended to serve.”

Mr. Arena added, “This is another example of a once trusted public official abusing their power for personal gain. The FBI remains dedicated to rooting out this type of corruption and reminding public officials they serve the citizens not themselves.”

The case was investigated by agents of the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Cares and David A. Gardey.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. It will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

WDET Call to Action

Community Groups in Warrendale

WDET has challenged Detroiters to pledge 10,000 hours of volunteer hours of community service to community groups working in the city of Detroit. They are a quarter of the way towards their goal and have added some great organizations operating in the Warrendale neighborhood, such as the Warrendale Avenue Community Organization, which represents that portion of Warrendale that is east of the Southfield Freeway. The Friends of Rouge Park and the Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Center are also included.

You can learn more about this initiative, and make your pledge to help our community, by visiting the WDET Call to Action here.

Tip of the Week: Stolen Gas

My Tip of the Week for this week is a personal one.

As another sign that gas prices are going up and up, someone siphoned half a tank of gas from my tank last night. If they were willing to do it to my car, they'll do it to any other one; including yours.

The best course of action is to store your car in a locked garage every night. If you're not able to do that then I encourage you to get one of those lockable gas tank caps. It's $20 well spent and is a lot cheaper than the gasoline that it protects.

And that is your Warrendale Tip of the Week.

The Tale of Two Mayors - How Different Mayors Have Handled Crises in Detroit

Detroit Police on the Job

Five years ago yesterday, on the evening of Friday, February 23, 2007, the region's attention was suddenly focused on Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood in shock, horror, and - above all else - moral outrage. It was on that evening that six individuals walked into a home on Mansfield Street looking to collect on a drug debt. Before the evening was over, two young boys, ages 11 and 13, were shot and killed inside their family home. Their 23 year old cousin was also shot that evening, but survived.

In the aftermath of that shooting, then Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick responded quickly. He and former Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings not only spoke out fiercely against the tragedy that had unfolded in our neighborhood; they organized prayer rallies and community meetings to talk about what could be done to prevent this from happening again.

In the days and weeks after the shooting, the Detroit Police Department was everywhere. They projected a visible presence to assure residents that this would not happen again and to warn against retaliatory shootings. My coverage of the aftermath is available here.

More importantly, within a matter of days, the Detroit Police Department had all six of those perpetrators in custody and facing a judge.

That, of course, was how Kwame Kilpatrick handled the situation.

Scene from the 2009 Bus Stop Shooting

Flash forward to the afternoon of Tuesday, June 30, 2009 and this time the entire nation's attention was turned on the Warrendale neighborhood after two masked gunmen opened fire at bus stop, shooting seven teenagers in the process. Video from the shooting was on all of the local news stations as well as CNN and the other national networks.

By this time, Kwame Kilpatrick was gone. He was replaced our current mayor, Dave Bing, who repeatedly promised Detroiters "change with a sense of urgency" during his campaign.

There weren't any statements of condemnation from Mayor Bing after that shooting. No rallies or community meetings. There wasn't a surge of activity from the Detroit Police Department this time. Most importantly, it would take the police more than a year to apprehend the two shooters this time.

The impact that shooting had on the neighborhood was tremendous. Every concern about crime that every resident or business owner had became magnified. The Detroit Free Press and others wrote editorials pleading for Mayor Bing to take an aggressive public stance in this matter. Those pleas, of course, were met with deafening silence.

And then, almost five years to the day after the Mansfield Street Shooting, gunfire again claimed the life of another child in the Warrendale neighborhood. This time it was a nine month old boy on Greenview Street who was killed when three unknown assailants fired round after round of automatic gunfire into his home early in the morning.

Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

This time around, there was at least a cursory state from the Chief of Police imploring Detroiters not to use firearms as a way to resolve disputes. However, we haven't seen the dramatic escalation in police presence in the neighborhood that we saw five years ago. More importantly, in contrast to the Mansfield Street Shooting, the police do not have any suspects in custody after almost a week of investigation.

All we have is inaction from the man who once promised us "change with a sense of urgency."

This is also on top of the disappearance of Margaret Theut, a seventy one year old resident of the Warrendale who mysterious disappearance last December remains an unsolved case; one that continues to garner more complaints of inaction from residents than any kind of official response from the police.

From an academic standpoint, I find it interesting to compare the active engagement of Kwame Kilpatrick with the almost Zen-like disengagement of Mayor Bing. From a personal standpoint, however, it is simply too frustrating to analyse properly.

Polish Rock Sensation Comes to Detroit

Since the Warrendale neighborhood still has a decent number of Polish Americans, and because the bands in question are just freaking awesome, I wanted to mention that the Polish rock/pop group Feel is coming to the Detroit area. Feel has been a staple of the Polish radio air waves since 2007. They are on their second U.S. tour and are touting their new CD, feel-3. Everyone in attendance at the Friday, February 24, 8:00 p.m. rock showcase at the PNA Concert Hall in Hamtramck will get a complimentary copy of their CD.

This, by the way, will be the first time Feel will play in the Detroit area.

Magda Kaminski

There will also be three other Polish pop-rockers who will open for Feel. Opening acts of Marcin Kindla, Sebastian Riedel, and Detroit favorite Magda Kaminski will warm up the crowd.

Tom Czuprynski, one of the two promoters for this show, touted the popularity and unique pop sound of Feel.  He added with enthusiasm, “The whole night will be about great music and there will be a lot of it.”

Rafal Nowakowski, the other promoter for this show, added, “We brought Magda Kaminski on the bill because she is so popular in Detroit and we wanted attendees to get an added-value bonus. Magda will do cuts from her Who I Am CD.  Feel has such a great following and lead singer Piotr Kupicha is just so giant in Europe. They have a popular sound and this will be so special for Detroit.”

Feel had their big breakout in 2007 after winning the famed Sopot International Song Festival in Poland. Their biggest hit to date has been “And When the Dusk Comes” which still tops the charts. PNA Concert Hall, 10211 Conant Avenue, Hamtramck, MI 48212. Tickets are only $40 and are available by calling 313-530-0209.

Feel members are Piotr Kupicha (lead vocals and guitar) as well as Łukasz Kożuch (keyboard), Michał Nowak (bass), Michał Opaliński (percussion), and Paweł Pawłowski (guitar).

"Treasure Buddies" Comes to the Detroit Public Library

The Edison Branch (18400 Joy Rd.) of the Detroit Public Library will show a great family film, Treasure Buddies, this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The film is free and complimentary popcorn will be served.

Treasure Buddies at our local branch of the Detroit Public Library is your Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week.

9 Month Infant Murdered on Greenview Street

Early yesterday morning, at approximately 4 a.m., three unidentified men opened fire on a house on Greenview Street in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood, killing a 9 month old baby boy in the process. Police believe this shooting was gang related and that someone else in the house was intended target.

WXYZ-TV has more on this story below. First, their original report from shortly after the shooting.

They also filed an update to this story later in the day.

If you know anything about the identity of these shooters, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. Your call is anonymous and there is a $5,000 reward.