Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Homeless shelter execs to plead guilty

|
|
 
  
Published: Dec. 8, 2009 at 2:51 PM

DETROIT, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Two leaders of a Detroit homeless shelter will plead guilty to charges they diverted taxpayer funds to political causes, The Detroit Free Press said Tuesday.

The newspaper, without citing sources, said Jon Rutherford, president and chief executive officer of Metro Emergency Services, and bookkeeper Judith Bugaiski, would plead guilty to 22 federal charges at at Tuesday hearing before U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani.

Prosecutors allege that Rutherford created a shell company to collect a total of $750,000 in rent from the shelter, then funneled it to causes such as the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, the Next Vision Foundation and Next Generation PAC, all associated with ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and the "(Michigan Gov.) Jennifer Granholm Inaugural Party."

Rutherford and Bugaiski were indicted in 2006. Documents obtained by the Free Press indicated that Internal Revenue Service investigators alleged that the the shell company "spends virtually every dollar it receives" from the shelter "on either so-called charitable contributions, political contributions, political action committees and to individuals."

Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional U.S. News Stories
1 of 21
President Obama Signs Smuggling Prevention Act at White House
View Caption
fark
French roadbuilders find 21 German WWI soldiers...and 1 goat
Photoshop this crazy old coot in the cold
Anonymous ends the week by bringing down the CIA webpage. *golf clap*
You can lead a horse to a hyperbaric chamber, but you can't make him not blow up
Man breaks into home, then vacuums and folds laundry (possibly with a menacing scowl on his face)...
It's starting to look as if the roles are now reversed - that Obama is Lucy with the football, and...