The Synagro deal: FBI investigates Detroit City Council
A waste contract approved last year by the Detroit City Council is under federal investigation. The council voted 5-4 in November 2007 to award Synagro Technologies Inc., based in Houston, Texas, a contract to handle the city's processed sewage for close to $47 million a year.
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Michigan
Synagro figure gets five years in prison
Detroit --A key figure in the City Hall bribery scandal received the maximum punishment -- five years -- on Friday, and one expert says the sentence could signal tough sentences for others in the probe. - 11/14/2009
Businessman in Synagro scandal gets 5 years in prison
Rayford Jackson received the maximum sentence today for his role in the City Hall bribery scandal: 60 months in prison. - 11/13/2009
Detroit City Hall probe may take years
The federal corruption probe of City Hall could extend for years, but federal agents will bring lawbreakers to justice, vows U.S. attorney Terrence Berg. - 09/02/2009
Analysis
Riddle faces tough trial
The number of people formally charged as a result of a long-running public corruption investigation increased to nine Thursday when political consultant Sam Riddle and former state representative Mary Waters were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit. - 07/17/2009
Controversy follows flamboyant Riddle
The federal indictment Wednesday of Sam Riddle, the charismatic and often bombastic political consultant, caps a career often punctuated by controversy. - 07/16/2009
Riddle charged with $100K in shakedowns
Detroit--A federal grand jury indictment handed down Wednesday depicts political consultant Sam Riddle and former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers as a two-headed shakedown team -- he the "consultant" who took about $100,000 from businesses, she the elected official and pension trustee with the power to make things happen for those who paid. - 07/16/2009
Riddle vows 'tooth and nail' court fight
Detroit --Sam Riddle is vowing vindication and sticking to routines. - 07/16/2009
Hold the Onions
Councilwoman Reeves to keep donations from ex-Synagro exec
City Councilwoman Martha Reeves says she will not return campaign donations from a former sludge company executive who plead guilty to bribing city officials in connection with a billion dollar waste handling contract. - 07/10/2009
Conyers sentence fires up debate
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers says she chose her words carefully on her TV show this week because "I don't want to go to jail." - 07/02/2009
Riddle: FBI probed $50K deal with Dems
Sam Riddle says federal investigators have questioned $50,000 he received in 2006 from the Michigan Democratic Party -- payments he described as election year "hush money." - 07/01/2009
Fed official may have given Conyers' aide inside information
A paralegal at the federal prosecutor's office is suspended after officials suspected she leaked confidential information to Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle while he was under criminal investigation. - 06/30/2009
Daniel Howes
Detroit gets chance to rise from ashes
It took Monica Conyers, guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery and soon a former member of the City Council, to show that Detroit does have public standards after all. - 06/30/2009
Colleague says Rep. Conyers shaken
Rep. John Conyers spent Friday casting a long series of votes and avoiding reporters' questions as news spread at the Capitol about his city councilwoman wife's guilty plea. - 06/27/2009
Conyers' behavior puzzling, her friends say
When U.S. Rep. John Conyers campaigned on behalf of his wife, his appeal was direct: "Join the Conyers family as we fight to take back Detroit from those that put self-interest above your interests." - 06/27/2009
Detroiters weary of political corruption
Faced with another political leader pleading guilty to a felony, Detroiters expressed disappointment Friday and said their faith in elected leaders is fragile. - 06/27/2009
Council fate hinges on conviction
Unless President Pro Tem Monica Conyers agrees to step down, her fate on Detroit City Council remains murky. - 06/27/2009
'Not the end' of City Hall corruption probe
Monica Conyers' guilty plea marks a major milestone in a long-running investigation of Detroit City Hall corruption, but officials say there is more to come. - 06/27/2009
Monica best when the spotlight is off
I began to understand how bizarre Detroit politics could be when I met a high-strung city councilwoman for a cocktail at a local jazz club. - 06/27/2009
Editorial: Monica Conyers should resign seat
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers' Friday guilty plea to a single federal bribery conspiracy charge is another sorry episode for the city. Conyers should be graceful and immediately resign her council seat to spare officials and residents any further distractions from city business. - 06/27/2009
Conyers admits trading Synagro vote for cash
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers, who loudly proclaimed her innocence for months, spoke softly in federal court Friday when admitting she took bribes in exchange for her vote on a $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract. - 06/27/2009
Conyers worries about FBI investigation
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers says she's worried about an ongoing FBI investigation into City Hall corruption but does not feel she can control its outcome. - 06/20/2009
Monica Conyers tie to $40K in jewelry probed
Federal agents are investigating allegations that Councilwoman Monica Conyers received thousands of dollars in jewelry from a pawn shop whose owner urged the council to ease off on plans to increase regulation of his business, people familiar with a City Hall corruption investigation told The Detroit News. - 06/19/2009
Laura Berman
Monica Conyers and a call to prayer
In the absence of other connectors, Monica Conyers is the glue that holds us together in these down times. - 06/18/2009
Bribery probe closes in on Conyers
Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers said Tuesday she's trusting God to deliver her from her mounting problems -- a possible federal indictment and the prospect of prison. - 06/17/2009
Exclusive interview
Developer cuts losses, will plead in Synagro bribery probe
Saying the feds have "my back against the wall," developer Rayford Jackson said he plans to plead guilty Monday in federal court to charges that he conspired to bribe elected officials in connection with a city sludge deal. - 06/13/2009
Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson accused of fraud
A Lathrup Village woman alleges Detroit businessman Rayford W. Jackson and his associates defrauded her of more than $355,000 on a deal to buy and renovate 10 Detroit-area homes. - 06/06/2009
Exec tied to fraud probe
A Detroit businessman linked to an ongoing FBI probe of the City Hall sludge scandal also is under scrutiny by Wayne County Sheriff's Office investigators probing alleged real estate fraud. - 06/03/2009
Rev. Edgar Vann: Faith and policy
Detroiters must demand civility from City Council
The virtual deconstruction of Detroit is continually exacerbated by political leadership behavior that is as reprehensible as it is indefensible. - 03/10/2009
Club: Conyers rep sought bribe
DETROIT -- Lawyers for a strip club have asked a federal judge for permission to amend their lawsuit against the city so they can add bribery allegations against City Council President Monica Conyers and her former aide, Sam Riddle. - 02/28/2009
Detroit
Jury sees two pension bosses
Two city of Detroit pension officials were subpoenaed to appear Wednesday before a federal grand jury conducting an ever-widening investigation into City Hall corruption, their attorney confirmed. - 02/26/2009
Mallett verifies link to Cobo
Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Conrad Mallett Jr. had a share of electrical and janitorial contracts at Detroit's Cobo Center that have been linked to a City Hall bribery scandal, Mallett confirmed Tuesday. - 02/11/2009
Detroit contracts probed in '05
A federal grand jury investigating City Hall corruption subpoenaed a raft of contract records from the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. in 2005, the city agency confirmed Monday. - 02/10/2009
Bernard Kilpatrick denies Synagro pay-to-play allegations
The father of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, implicated in a federal probe of City Hall, denied a pay-to-play scheme and said that those who are "demonizing" his son were coming after him. - 01/30/2009
Frank Beckmann
Commentary: Will Synagro contract investigation wake up Detroit's voters?
Political consultant Sam Riddle has an apt description of Detroit's political culture. - 01/30/2009
Conyers aide under fire
A lawyer for a strip club official says his client told a federal grand jury Wednesday that a top aide to then-City Councilwoman Monica Conyers offered to deliver her vote on a permit transfer for $25,000. - 01/29/2009
Feds up pressure in bribery probe
Federal prosecutors are stepping up pressure on those involved in the Synagro sludge scandal to come forward and cut a deal or face indictment and harsh treatment, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit said Tuesday. - 01/28/2009
Editorial: Council is right to dump Synagro
The Detroit City Council was right to vote Tuesday to ask Mayor Ken Cockrel and the city law department to rescind the city's contract with Synagro Technologies, a Texas-based sludge hauling firm. Now that one of its former executives has entered a guilty plea to engaging in a bribery conspiracy to win the contract, it is, in Councilman Kwame Kenyatta's words, "tainted." - 01/28/2009
Kilpatrick, dad linked to FBI bribery investigation
Court documents filed in connection with a guilty plea Monday tie former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, to an ongoing federal bribery investigation. - 01/27/2009
Synagro contract 'tainted'
DETROIT -- City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said Monday he plans to move to rescind the controversial Synagro Technologies Inc. contract as soon as today. - 01/27/2009
City Hall corruption probe's key figures
Here are key figures in the FBI's corruption probe into City Hall that centers on the Synagro sludge contract: - 01/27/2009
Feds summon Conyers' ex-aide
FBI agents investigating alleged City Hall corruption delivered a grand jury subpoena Friday to a former aide to Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers, the former aide's attorney confirmed. - 01/10/2009
