(WXYZ) — Just days before the former City Manager of Troy is sentenced in a bribery case, the feds spell out in a sentencing memorandum that Brian Kischnick had a “God complex” and was “the poster child of corruption.”
The memo is designed to convince Judge Nancy Edmunds that Kischnick should be sentenced to 55 months in federal prison.
The feds also say he needs a substantial sentence because the high-profile case of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick writing, “that corruption will be seriously addressed and punished everywhere in southeast Michigan when discovered, whether in Detroit or its suburbs.”
When Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison in his bribery and corruption case, the feds say, it did not deter the City Manager of Troy, the largest city in Oakland County.
“By his third year, and approximately two years after the Kilpatrick sentence, Kischnick was requesting free improvements to his personal residence from city contractors. He eventually graduated to the level of soliciting cash outright and free living expenses, totaling nearly $50,000,” the feds wrote.
Kischnick was City Manager from 2012 until he was fired last year.
Kischnick case includes a free driveway at this house, at the time widening it and having the city remove a tree and billing that to the contractor.
That contractor also paid for lavish meals and drinks at several restaurants in Troy and outside of the city. That contractor is Di Lisio and in a statement from its attorney, they say they too are victims of Kischnick and there was no pay for play for them to get the paving contract in Troy or any other city.
For more than a decade, DiLisio Contracting has proudly been a concrete services provider for the City of Troy. DiLisio Contracting’s work for Troy has resulted from publicly bid contracts and extensions based on performance and workmanship. DiLisio Contracting became a victim of then City Manager Brian Kischnick’s exploitation of his position for his own personal gain. During the course of the FBI’s investigation into Kischnick’s corruption, DiLisio Contracting cooperated with the government, which included giving things of value to Kischnick – at the direction and with the approval of the FBI and the Department of Justice. DiLisio Contracting proudly helped the citizens of Troy by doing its part to insure the integrity of City government, and to bring a corrupt official to justice by following federal law enforcement’s instructions. DiLisio Contracting’s assistance was instrumental in the federal government’s ability to investigate, prosecute, and convict Brian Kischnick. DiLisio Contracting will continue to serve Troy residents by fulfilling a substantial purchase order it received from the City of Troy in late-August 2018 – following Kischnick’s guilty plea. DiLisio Contracting has never participated in a “pay to play” scheme or bribery to receive contracts in the City of Troy or elsewhere. DiLisio Contracting is an honest and hardworking company that takes pride in its dedication and commitment to its customers.
A Somerset apartment was provided to Kischnick for more than three years with furniture rent free, the feds write. He is not charged with bribery in that part of the case and his defense attorney says there was no bribery in that.
Kischnick plead guilty to accepting, in total, $9478.60 from Dilisio Contracting. When the government alleged Kischnick also bribed or was bribed by a Troy Apartment Complex, Judge Edmunds ordered it to produce evidence and it never did. The court told the government to schedule a hearing with live witnesses who could make the case but there was no witness who could make the case because there as no second bribe. I fully expect the court will sentence Kischnick based on the $9478.60 in cash, meals, and services, for which he accepted full responsibility.
Kischnick pleaded guilty to one count of Bribery in a plea deal.
He is set for sentencing on Thursday morning.
Read the fed's full sentencing memo below:
Kischnick Sententing Memo FEDS by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
