Ex-Detroit mayor got free trips from pension fund broker, feds say
Source: CNN
Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former treasurer got more than $125,000 in free travel and entertainment from an investment firm that made $3 million handling city pension funds, federal regulators said Wednesday.
A lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission accuses Kilpatrick and former city Treasurer Jeffrey Beasley of soliciting the gifts from MayfieldGentry Realty Advisors, which regulators say picked up the tab for trips to Las Vegas, Bermuda and Florida on private jets.
Beasley told the firm's owner, Chancey Mayfield, that his company was "in the doghouse" with Kilpatrick's administration after Mayfield backed Kilpatrick's opponent in the 2005 election, the lawsuit states, and Beasley offered to help Mayfield "clear the air" with the mayor.
"At the same time Mayfield and MGRA secretly provided these gifts, they were seeking approval from the trustees of the funds, including Kilpatrick and Beasley, for over $115 million in investments," the lawsuit states. "The failure by Kilpatrick, Beasley, MGRA, and Mayfield to disclose these gifts and the resulting conflicts of interest constituted a fraud on the pension funds."
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/justice/michigan-kilpatrick-sec/index.html
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