Politics

Good Luck Getting Your Money: Imprisoned Kwame Kilpatrick Owes $11.2 Million

May 01, 2018, 7:07 AM

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Kwame Kilpatrick (Deadline Detroit photo)

Even before heading off to federal prison in October 2013 to serve his 28-year sentence, ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says he was broke. 

But the money he owes everyone keeps growing: A new $7.4 million civil judgment has now upped his debt to $11.2 million, reports Robert Snell of the Detroit News. Federal prison inmates earn 12-40 cents an hour doing jobs that include working in the kitchen. 

Kilpatrick, 47, who is currently housed in a federal prison in Oklahoma, also owes money to the IRS, millions to the city of Detroit for his criminal cases and prominent business people including Dan Gilbert.

“I would expect that the odds are not very good” of debtors collecting money from Kilpatrick, his lawyer Harold Gurewitz tells the News.

Snell reports: 

Kilpatrick’s finances came into sharper focus April 19. That’s when U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow ended a six-year legal battle by issuing a nearly $7.5 million judgment to a firm owned by minority contractor Willie McCormick.

McCormick sued the former mayor and contractor Bobby Ferguson in 2012, alleging they ran a secret scheme to steer water department work to favored firms.

McCormick claims his company was left out of lucrative contracts as a result of the scheme. 

The other debt, according to the News, includes: 

■$1,520,654 in restitution to the city water department from the city hall corruption scandal.

■$854,062 in restitution to the city stemming from the text-message scandal that ended his political career. Kilpatrick hasn’t made a payment since before being sent to prison.

■$650,000 in attorney fees.

■$240,000 in loans from Compuware co-founder Peter Karmanos Jr. and businessmen Roger Penske, Dan Gilbert and James Nicholson.

Also read:

Lengel: Why Kwame Kilpatrick's 28-Year Sentence Is Still Ridiculous


Read more:  Detroit News


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