DETROIT — Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, once seen as a rising star in Democratic Party politics, was convicted on Monday on two dozen federal charges of corruption and bribery during his seven-year tenure.

Kilpatrick

Prosecutors accused Kilpatrick, 42, of widespread corruption, extorting bribes from contractors who wanted to get or keep city contracts, and turning the mayor’s office into “Kilpatrick Incorporated” from 2001 until he resigned in 2008. Kilpatrick could face prison sentences of up to 20 years for the most serious charges for steering more than $83 million worth of municipal contracts to his friend Bobby Ferguson, a city contractor, who shared some of the money with the former mayor. The 12 jurors, who deliberated for 14 days from mid-February in a District Court trial that started last September, returned a sweeping verdict against Kilpatrick following the biggest public corruption probe in Detroit in decades.

Jurors found Kilpatrick guilty of racketeering, extortion, bribery, mail and wire fraud, and tax charges. District Judge Nancy Edmunds ordered Kilpatrick and Ferguson, who was found guilty of racketeering, extortion and bribery, immediately taken into custody pending sentencing after a hearing on Monday afternoon. Both men had been free on bail during the trial. No sentencing dates have been scheduled. Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard Kilpatrick, who was also charged in the corruption case, was convicted on a single count of signing a false tax return.                                                                   

-Reuters