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The feds finally came down on a central figure in a trash hauling bribery scandal in Macomb County involving local politicians. They also widened their net to include allegations involving a towing contract and embezzlement.
A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Charles B. "Chuck" Rizzo, 46, former CEO of garbage hauler Rizzo Environmental Services, charging him with five counts of bribery and three counts of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with garbage contracts in Clinton, Macomb, and Chesterfield townships.
Wednesday's "superseding" indictment, which is an amended indictment, also named towing company owner Gasper Fiore, 56, of Grosse Pointe Shores, with bribery to land a municipal contract.
The indictment charges Fiore and former Clinton Township trustee Dean Reynolds, 50, of Clinton Township, with multiple counts of bribery and conspiring to commit bribery to secure a towing contract with Clinton Township.
In March 2016, authorities allege that Fiore paid a $4,000 cash bribe to Reynolds, and then another $3,000 in cash to Reynolds in May 2016, authorities charged. The bribes were paid by Fiore to Reynolds through Rizzo, authorities charge.
Additionally, the indictment charges Charles P. Rizzo, 70, of New Baltimore, his son Charles B. Rizzo, Fiore, Derrick Hicks, 47, of Bloomfield Hills and Fiore, with scheming to steal hundreds of thousand of dollars from Rizzo Environmental Services between between 2013 and 2016 when the majority owner was a New York-based private equity firm. The company has since been sold to GFL (Green For Life) Environmental.
The group is accused of using a fake legal settlement agreement, fraudulent consulting deals, cash kickbacks and shell companies to steal from the garbage firm. Some money covered part of the costs of building Charles B. Rizzo’s Bloomfield Township mansion, authorities charge.
Some stolen money was also used to pay bribes to public officials to maintain and secure additional municipal garbage contracts.
Authorities say Charles B. Rizzo referred to the embezzled money as “OPM”—“other people’s money.”
Wednesday's indictment brings to 12 the number of politicians and business people indicted in a wide-sweeping corruption probe into Macomb County being conducted by the FBI, IRS and U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.
"The public understandably is skeptical when public officials and municipal contractors in southeast Michigan conspire with one another to line their own pockets and illegally scheme to obtain advantages over their competitors," David P. Gelios, head of the Detroit FBI, says in a statement.
