Crooks In Detroit?

[Homicidalheathen]

K used to work for a company that did buisness with this guy like 10 yrs ago, the airport project...says he knew the guy was crooked...

Contractor pleads guilty to embezzling from pension funds

By Robert Ankeny

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Detroit contractor Frank Vallecorsa, former head of American International Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzlement of more than $745,000 from two company pension funds.

Vallecorsa, 77, of Grosse Pointe Farms, faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, plus full restitution to the funds, when he is sentenced Aug. 25, 2008 by U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson.

U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy said the charge showed that between February 2001 and June 2003, Vallecorsa embezzled $745,000 from the pension funds in order to keep his financially depressed American International afloat.

At the time, Vallecorsa was the sole trustee of both employee pension plans.

“Embezzlement of employee pension funds is a betrayal of the duties that corporate officers owe their company, its workers, and the public,” Murphy said in a statement.

Last September, Vallecorsa agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines to settle fraud allegations connected to contracting work at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Vallecorsa’s five companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2005. His companies handled millions of dollars in Wayne County and City of Detroit contracts, and he was a witness but never charged in two public bribery cases.

Vallecorsa was accused of making false claims when billing the Federal Aviation Administration for work at the airport between 1993 and 1999, and also accused of receiving contracts through bribes paid to Wilbourne Kelley III, a former assistant Wayne County executive.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../211079117/1069