Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, already in prison for probation violations, was indicted Wednesday on federal fraud and tax charges, accused of a turning a charity into a personal slush fund for cash, travel, yoga, summer camp and even anti-bugging equipment.
The indictment said Kilpatrick, 40, created the Civic Fund in 1999 and gained tax-exempt status after declaring it would be a social-welfare organization to enhance neighborhoods, help youth and improve Detroit's image.
The government, however, said the goal seemed to be to enrich Kilpatrick. He is charged with failing to report at least $640,000 in taxable income between 2003 and 2008, the value of the cash, private jet flights and personal expenses paid by the fund.
Kilpatrick used the fund to pay for yoga and golf, camp for his kids, travel, moving expenses to Texas, a crisis manager, cars, polling, political consulting and much more, including "counter-surveillance and anti-bugging equipment," according to the indictment. It did not provide details about the equipment.
How sad is this? His fund was supposedly enacted to help enrich Detroit's image, but all it created was a slush fund for himself and an even worse national reputation for Detroit. Granted, I do think Detroit voters share the blame for voting for this idiot. You reap what you sow, and if you vote for criminals, you get crime. And I love how his spokesperson tries to put a positive spin on things by emphasizing how he wasn't charged with "public corruption." So it could have been worse! As it is, he's facing another two decades in prison!
I hope this is it. Detroit needs to move on, and Kwame needs to disappear from the headlines for good.
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