http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/METRO/807050357 Bribe probe ensnarls Conyers
Feds: Surveillance evidence suggests councilwoman took money tied to waste pact
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Federal investigators have electronic surveillance evidence that allegedly links Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers with receiving a payment or payments in connection with a city-approved sludge contract, two people familiar with the investigation said.
Conyers -- who changed her position from speaking in opposition to the sludge contract to voting in favor of it -- and at least one other council member are under FBI investigation in connection with possible bribes related to the $47 million contract with Synagro Technologies Inc. of Houston, one of the people familiar with the investigation said Friday. Bribes allegedly paid to people connected with the city but not members of the City Council also are under investigation, one person said.
Steve Fishman, a prominent Detroit criminal attorney representing Conyers, said any allegations against Conyers should be viewed with skepticism.
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"Every time I hear the word 'allegedly,' it reminds me of Gladys Knight and her song, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine,' " Fishman said.
"Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear."
Conyers, the spouse of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, has been absent from City Council meetings since news of the scandal broke June 28. She declined comment Friday.
"I'm not feeling well right now," she said in a brief telephone interview. "When I get back to work, I'll get back to work."
Former Monica Conyers aide Sam Riddle, who earlier said the FBI had tapped his cell phone and examined his bank records, said Friday that Rayford W. Jackson, a Detroit businessman under investigation in connection with the alleged payoffs, owes him money and wrote him two checks that bounced.
In November, the City Council voted 5-4 to award a contract to Synagro that would pay the company close to $47 million a year to haul and treat the city's sewage sludge. Synagro was represented in the deal by James Rosendall, a Grand Rapids businessman who recently stepped down from his appointed post on the Michigan Transportation Commission. Jackson, of RAS Development Inc., was a local partner on the deal.
The Synagro investigation is part of a broader FBI probe of City Hall that has examined contracts related to Cobo Center and other city departments and spans several years.
Last week, Synagro announced it had suspended Rosendall without pay and had stopped payments on its contract with Jackson. Alvin L. Thomas II, Synagro executive vice president and general counsel, said Synagro is cooperating with the FBI investigation and is not a target.
Rosendall became a cooperating witness in the investigation and was videotaped earlier this year making a payment to John Clark, who at the time was chief of staff to City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr., people familiar with the case said. Cockrel, who said he is not a target of the investigation, said Clark resigned after news of the corruption investigation broke, though Cockrel would not say why Clark resigned.
Jackson, who is also under investigation, has done nothing wrong and has refused to cooperate with the FBI, said his lawyer, Richard H. Morgan Jr.
Many of the alleged payments connected to the Synagro investigation were for a few thousand dollars and did not reach five figures, one of the people familiar with the investigation said.
"It seems like there are pretty low numbers motivating these folks," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Riddle, who worked as a consultant to Conyers and who said he turned down an FBI request to cooperate with the investigation by wearing a wire, said Friday that Jackson owes him money for a consulting project they worked on in February 2007 and that Jackson wrote him two corporate checks that bounced. Riddle would not say how much Jackson owes him but said, "I intend to collect, still."
Riddle said he is unaware of Conyers soliciting money in connection with the sludge contract and unaware of anyone paying her money in connection with the contract. Also, "I've never accepted money from anyone that I delivered to Monica Conyers," Riddle said.
"If they've listened to my phone conversations with her ... I don't know how they might interpret some of those conversations," Riddle said. "I dealt with her on a couple of levels -- on her campaign, and as a councilwoman."
Riddle said he does not believe he has billed Conyers for any consulting work since September or October.
It was not clear Friday whether the electronic surveillance involving Conyers was audiotaped or videotaped or both.
Another person the FBI is interested in talking to in connection with the investigation is Michael Tardif, a political adviser to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a member of the Democratic National Committee, a person familiar with the investigation confirmed Friday.
Tardif could not be reached for comment Friday. His attorney, David DuMouchel, declined comment. James Canning, a mayoral spokesman, could not be reached for comment Friday.
FBI agents investigating the Synagro contract have also asked questions about Bernard Kilpatrick, who is the mayor's father and a Detroit business consultant.
The mayor, who is awaiting trial on unrelated perjury and other felony charges related to his testimony at a police whistle-blower trial last year, has denied any involvement in the Synagro contract or ensuing investigation.
Jackson's father-in-law, Detroit architect Harold Varner, said Thursday that Jackson is an honest and hard-working man and Varner does not believe Jackson did anything illegal in connection with the sludge contract.
"He's scared to death of doing something wrong," Varner said of Jackson. "He's one of the good guys."
Varner's former office in the Penobscot Building was listed the business address for Jackson and Rosendall when they teamed up to bid on a Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority contract in 2005.
Varner, who said he has not been contacted by the FBI, said he allowed Jackson to use his office to receive mail and to hold meetings but that Jackson did not normally conduct his business out of Varner's architecture firm.
Detroit News Staff Writer Jennifer Mrozowski contributed to this report. You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or
[email protected].
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