If you're keeping track, add another federal defendant to the list of Detroit corruption investigation arrests -- though the alleged proceeds this time almost seem like petty cash.
Robert Snell delivers details in The Detroit News:
Federal prosecutors charged a former City Council staffer Tuesday with pocketing a $15,000 bribe as part of a widening scandal involving the city’s pension funds.
George Stanton of Detroit, the former chief of staff to ex-Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted. He was charged in a criminal information, which typically means the defendant has cut a deal. . . .
According to court records, Stanton accepted a $15,000 cash bribe from Georgia businessman Roy Dixon. The money was in exchange for Stanton influencing Dixon’s business dealings with the city’s pension funds.
For those keeping score, the report gives this running tally:
Stanton is the sixth person charged in the widening bribery and extortion scandal.
As with just about everything in Detroit, this situation is related to emergency management of the financially reeling city. Snell connects the dots:
Last month, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr launched an investigation of the city’s pension funds amid concerns about mismanagement and corruption. He is set to meet with pension officials Wednesday and could soon decide whether to replace pension trustees and take over running the funds.
-- Alan Stamm
