Trial focuses on Kilpatrick's finances

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DETROIT, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- An Internal Revenue Service agent focused on alleged hidden finances Monday in the corruption trial of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

The government witness, IRS Special Agent Ron Sauer, took the stand and pinpointed the start of an investigation that ultimately led to a grand jury investigation in 2010, saying IRS subpoenas indicated cash deposits in a bank account of Kilpatrick's totaled $198,000, money not derived from Kilpatrick's paycheck, which stopped when he resigned his mayoral position in 2008.

A bank employee, Jerome Robinson, testified Kilpatrick routinely made large cash deposits, usually in $100 bills.

"He'd hand it to me from his pocket," Robinson said.

Sgt. Jefferson Travis also testified Kilpatrick evaded his police bodyguards to meet with co-defendant Bobby Ferguson. Prosecutors have said Kilpatrick was given $541,000 in cash from Ferguson, who received $60 million in city-related business, sometimes for doing no work at all, the Detroit News reported.

Detroit Police Commissioner Duane Love also testified Monday about trips Kilpatrick and others were given by Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., businessman Tony Soave, to Bermuda and on shopping trips to New York City. Prosecutors are using the trips to illustrate alleged bribes offered Kilpatrick, the newspaper said.