Papers: Kilpatrick got friends grants

DETROIT, May 18 (UPI) -- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick steered state grants when he was a state lawmaker to non-profits that agreed to pay a company his wife owned, records show.

One grant was to a non-profit formed by Kilpatrick's friend, Bobby Ferguson, and the other was to a group run by the Rev. Edgar Vann, who then was Kilpatrick's pastor, The Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

The state eventually terminated half of Ferguson's $500,000 grant because of inappropriate spending, including buying a house, and failure to document how the state's money was being spent, the newspaper said.

By the time the contract was terminated, Ferguson's group had paid $100,000 to a company called U.N.I.T.E. Co. Inc., which the mayor's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, incorporated in July 2000. Meanwhile, Vann's program had agreed to pay U.N.I.T.E. $75,000 from its grant.

Only $37,500 was paid to the program because state officials raised objections to compensating Carlita Kilpatrick's company with a state grant her husband helped secure.

Kilpatrick's office issued a statement praising work done with the grants.

"(Carlita Kilpatrick's) U.N.I.T.E., which did excellent work in the schools by providing non-violent education, mentoring young girls, and coaching basketball, provided all of its services with a high amount of dignity and respect," the statement said.