Former Detroit mayor indicted on 19 charges
Jun 23rd, 2010 by Bilal Ali
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was indicted Wednesday on 19
counts of federal fraud and tax charges, according to the U.S.
attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Michigan.
The
charges against him include 10 counts of mail fraud, three counts of
wire fraud, five counts of filing a false tax return and one count of
tax evasion, according to U.S. District Court spokesman Rod Hanson.
If
he is convicted, each fraud count would carry a maximum sentence of 20
years in prison and a fine of $250,000, while each tax count would carry
a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of
$250,000, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The charges stem from
an alleged scheme in which Kilpatrick used donations to his Kilpatrick
Civic Fund — a tax-exempt social welfare organization — to pay for
such personal expenses as yoga and golf lessons, and campaign expenses
in his 2001 and 2005 bids for mayor, according to the indictment.
Kilpatrick
had claimed the fund would go toward community services and voter
registration information, the indictment says.
Kilpatrick, 40, is
currently serving five years in prison for violating probation in a
2008 case against him. That case involved two felony counts of
obstruction of justice stemming from Kilpatrick’s efforts to cover up an
extramarital affair.
He also pleaded no
contest to charges of assaulting a police officer attempting to serve a
subpoena on a Kilpatrick friend in the case.