According to an indictment, attorney Ronald
Zajac raised more than $70,000 for the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, a nonprofit
that was raided by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for personal adventures. He raised
the money to curry favor with the Mayor.
It worked until he got caught.
Zajac was charged with overseeing Detroit's
billion-dollar pension funds. He had a $400,000 salary. That was not enough. He
also became a thief accepting perks galore from businessmen seeking favors,
including a $5,000 casino chip, a Christmas basket stuffed with cash and trips
for him and his mistress. His bribes and kickbacks schemes cost two pension
funds $84 million in losses.
Zajac forced people with business before the
pension funds to spend thousands of dollars to entertain trustees, and once
forced one trustee to pay more than $10,000 for limousines for other trustees
during a trip to New York City, the indictment said.
He bribed three trustees with thousands of
dollars in cash at birthday parties in return for the trustees to vote to give
Zajac a substantial raise, bringing his salary to more than $400,000.
The board is reviewing the appropriateness of
Mr. Zajac continuing to serve as the General Retirement System’s attorney. The
Board of Trustees of the Police and Fire Retirement System fired Zajac as
general counsel. (Free Press)
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