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earlier at 5:00 we heard from this man
Tim Drake fir'd he says the FBI
interviewed him three times about
corruption and the demolition program
the city of Detroit says he is an
unreliable witness because he's now
banned from that program for
questionable practices
and tonight the story continues the
local Ford offenders have obtained
never-before-seen emails letters and
depositions that are now part of the FBI
investigation and a possible corruption
in Detroit's demolition program states
spend millions of dollars on an audit
that suggests bid rigging and collusion
was taking place they turned it over to
the FBI but went to court to keep it
from the public and defender Kevin Dietz
has that audit and the never-before-seen
documents Kevin the state of Michigan
spent two and a half million dollars to
audit the city of Detroit's demolition
program in 2016
rather than release the findings to
state agency monitoring the programs
funding fought like crazy in court to
keep them a secret but their secrets out
now that the FBI is interviewing
cooperating witnesses like demolition
contractor Tim Drake fer we met with
federal agents three separate times in
the corruption probe don't try to hide
it because it's all gonna come out like
in the Bible whatever you do in the
darkness she'll come to the light and
that's what's happening I'm a fool
wishing for a turn the city and state
will tell you they are cooperating what
they did not do is make public this full
audit they came to the conclusion that
evidence suggests bid-rigging and
collusion between the Detroit Land Bank
and the Detroit business authority
activist Robert Davis first requested
the audit in February 2017
I sent for your request to both the
state the city the land bank and the
Building Authority and all of them said
no such document exists Davis sued
taxpayers footing the bill for the state
to fight turning over records in
December 2017
a judge ordered the release of meeting
minutes that showed Mary Townley who ran
the state program monitoring federal
money met with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan
about the audit findings and that the
mayor then went to the city of Chicago
to meet with the Treasury Department
what stuck out was the fact that the
mayor was intimately involved the Davis
lawsuit also turned over this letter
from Mary Townley to the US Treasury it
stated way back 2016 and says there is
an ongoing criminal investigation being
conducted by the
state's attorney's office and the FBI
and that the investigation thus far has
focused on the Detroit land bank and the
Detroit Building Authority rather than
the contractors in February 2018 the
judge ordered depositions Mary Townley
testified she met with the FBI on ten
occasions finally the state gave up is
turning it over to Robert Davis the
audit report which they say it didn't
exist which now exists in it dozens of
examples of highly questionable Billings
invitation-only meetings for contractors
to discuss pricing evidence of no-bid
contracts admissions of concealing price
manipulations inflating of invoices
evidence of bid rigging and collusion
Davis thinks the court battle to keep
the audit secret was a conspiracy they
didn't want to release this audit report
during the election that was held here
in the city of Detroit because they
didn't want to hurt the mayor of the
city of Detroit that's what this whole
thing is all about the city says that is
ridiculous they did not release the
audit because they didn't have it
insisting they have been transparent
about mistakes made the reimbursement of
six point three seven million dollars
plus two and a half million in
investigative costs and how new
procedures are now in place pointing out
the federal program has awarded Detroit
over a hundred million dollars since the
corrections were made
all right that's our Kevin Dietz
reporting now the city would not go on
camera for an interview but they did
send us this statement and it reads
thusly the city has been completely
transparent with its demolition program
and is fully cooperated with every state
and federal inquiry into the program all
of the issues raised in the MHA audit
were addressed and resolved a year ago
and detailed in to press conferences
conducted by Mayor Duggan the land bank
and the state agreed on a financial
settlement over disputed Billings to the
state and there was no finding of
wrongdoing on the part of the city or
the land bank since these issues were
settled the US Treasury Department has
released another 132 million dollars to
Detroit's demolition program to allowed
to continue its work the city could not
release the MHA audit after it was
completed because it was never provided
with a copy until just recently after
the MHA released it in response to a
FOIA request once the city received a
copy of the audit we released it upon
request state of Michigan also responded
to our report and you can see their
statement at clickondetroit.com