Federal prosecutors target Kwame Kilpatrick’s friends and family, seeking thousands of dollars
The Federal prosecutors are seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the friends and family of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to collect money owed to the city.
Court records show the former mayor’s father, Bernard Kilpatrick, still owes around $36,000 in restitution.He originally owed over $62,000 but began making payments toward the debt.
Detroit’s former Treasurer Jeffery Beasley’s assets are already being compromised. The court ordered 25% of his earnings from his job at Florida A&M University to be directed to his debt.
While the two have begun to pay back the stolen taxpayer money, ex-city contractor Bobby Ferguson has refused to pay a dime back, which former federal prosecutor Rick Convertino says is not uncommon.
“That’s where we are, it’s going to continue until the gentlemen pass away, it’s been going on, it will continue to go on in the same way,” he said.
In March 2024, the Detroit Office of Inspector General barred Ferguson from doing business with the city until March 2033. Ferguson was released from federal prison in April 2021 after he was convicted in 2013 of nine felonies, including racketeering, extortion, and bribery.
Kwame Kilpatrick served seven years of a 28-year sentence on bribery, extortion, racketeering and other charges related to crimes when he was mayor from 2002 to 2008.
Convertino had a front row seat to the former Detroit mayor’s career.
“When I was in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he would come in occasionally, and it would be like the president of the United States were there,” said Convertino.
Convertino says the legal system proved that power doesn’t trump the law when he was sentenced. However, after Kilpatrick’s sentence was commuted by President Trump in 2021, Convertino is unsure if he still has to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes, especially if he doesn’t have any assets to seize.
“There is no assets, there is no income, there’s no automobile, no home, no business, all in other people’s names,” said Convertino. “The ability for the government to take is extremely limited.”
