By Ed White
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) -- A man who served as executive assistant to then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty last Thursday to paying $15,000 in bribes to an official for support of $30 million in city pension investments.
Marc Cunningham pleaded guilty to conspiracy just a few hours after the charge was filed. He already had negotiated a plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office and is the third high-ranking former Kilpatrick aide to plead guilty to corruption.
Before going to work for Kilpatrick in 2006, Cunningham was a consultant for an investment firm and was promised a $300,000 commission when two Detroit retirement funds agreed to place $30 million with his employer.
Cunningham said he subsequently paid $15,000 in 2006 and 2007 as a "reward" to a city official who supported the pension deal.
He said the official directed him to pay the money in cash to a relative. The names of the official and the relative were not revealed in court or in court documents. Prosecutors declined to comment.
"The relative did no work to earn the payments," Cunningham, 41, told a judge.
Cunningham faces as much as three years in prison, although his cooperation with the FBI could net him a shorter sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Michael Bullotta said.
Cunningham and defense attorney Vincent Toussaint declined to comment outside court.
Published: Mon, Nov 8, 2010
