DETROIT, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) – A former employee of the City of Dearborn Building and Safety Department was sentenced on Thursday to two years (24 months) in prison for accepting bribes in return for issuing permits without charging the required fees, according to prosecutors.

Wanda Smith, 42, accepted over $15,000, as well as discounted repairs to her home and car in return for issuing over 1,000 permits between 2006 and 2009. She didn’t charge any fee, neither the required fee nor a reduced one.

The sentence will be followed by 2 years of supervised release and she was ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution.

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DETROIT, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) – An arrest warrant has been signed for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit Free Press said Thursday.

According to reports, Kilpatrick failed to make a $79,011 court-ordered restitution payment on February 19, provided unclear accounting finances of his wife, failed to surrender all his tax refunds, did not turn over his state and city pension, did not forfeit a $7,500 bond, and did not turn over all of his political funds.

The warrant was requested by the state Department of Corrections and Kilpatrick’s probation officer.

On Tuesday, Judge Groner ordered Kilpatrick to appear in court for the hearing after he failed to pay the $79,011 on his $1 million restitution.

Kilpatrick is expected to surrender on the warrant Friday morning in the courtroom.

The ex-mayor was the youngest mayor in the history of Detroit when elected in 2001, but his terms were darkened by several scandals and accusations of corruptions. Kilpatrick was charged with ten felony counts, and was sentenced to four months in prison although he was released after serving 99 days.

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DETROIT, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) – A Michigan man was sentenced for an animal fighting related case, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Martin Phillips promoted and engaged in an animal fighting venture in which American Pit Bull Terrieres were bred, sold, trained, and promoted for the purpose of dog fighting matches.

Jay Rodriguez and Joshua Gates were charged along with Phillips as they all admitted to sponsoring dogs for fighting matches.

Local law enforcement conducted three simultaneous search warrants at each of their residences in Lenawee and Huron Counties on June 17, 2009, seizing a total of forty-nine dogs in the raids, along with training equipment, veterinary supplies, and underground dog fighting publications.

Phillips was sentenced to six months in custody followed by a two-year term of supervised release. It was also ordered that all three men would have no future contact with any animal used to participate in an animal fighting venture of any kind.

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DETROIT, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed three search warrants on three companies in the Detroit metropolitan area on Tuesday evening, FBI’s Detroit office announced on Wednesday.

Yazaki North America, Denso International and Tokai Rita are the three companies that were raided on undisclosed motives. The three of them supply major parts to Toyota, as to other car manufacturers.

The headquarters were raided as part of an antitrust investigation. The reason behind the warrants hasn’t been informed to the public, neither by the FBI nor by the companies.

A spokeswoman for Denso said that the raid has nothing to do with Toyota’s recent safety issues, according to media reports. She also commented that the company is fully cooperating with the investigation.

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DETROIT, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) – The former owner of Great lakes Broker Funding in Grand Blanc, Michigan was sentenced to 65 months imprisonment for a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced on Thursday.

Kurt Warren Heintz, 39, was indicted on one count of Financial Institution fraud. James Fish, 41, of Royal Oak, Michigan was charged under the same count and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Heintz and Fish plotted a fraud scheme using a fraudulent mortgage application based on a false and inflated property appraisal in order to defraud several Flint area based banks. An investigation made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found out that approximately $14.4 million were taken from financial institutions by the two defendants.

Investigations revealed that the schemes started in May 2005 and finished in 2007. The institutions affected were the Indy Mac Bank, Bank of America, Mercantile Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Union Federal Bank.

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ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN (BNO NEWS) – The Ann Arbor, Michigan Police Department on Friday issued an Amber Alert for a missing 14-year-old girl who is believed to have been kidnapped by two men previously convicted of sex crimes.

Serena Leroux Riggins, 14, was last seen together with a man, identified as Woodrow Roosevelt Williams II, in the area of Washtenaw Ave. and Ainsworth within the city of Ypsilanti at approximately 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Riggins is described as a thin build white female, 5 feet 3 inches, 125 pounds. She has brown eyes and straight brown hair.

The Ann Arbor Police Department believes Riggins was abducted by Williams, who is described as a 25-year-old man with brown eyes and black hair. He also has a tattoo on his right arm and is about 6 feet tall, weighing about 180 pounds.

A second suspect is William Rankin Wayne, 25. He is described as a black male, 6 feet 4 inches, 130 pounds, brown eyes and black hair. Both are wanted on suspicion of felony criminal sexual conduct charges.

If you have any information on the victim or the alleged abductors, immediately call 911 or the Ann Arbor Police Department at 734-794-6911.

DETROIT (BNO NEWS) – A Detroit, Michigan man on Monday was sentenced to prison for his connection to an identity theft scheme involving approximately 40 financial accounts, prosecutors announced.

Martel T. Kirkland, 53, was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for conspiracy, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud, wire fraud, uttering a forged security, and aiding and abetting, in connection with an identity theft scheme.

Kirkland engaged in the scheme with co-defendants Jay Cohen and Robert Fox, both of Philadelphia, who pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. As part of the scheme, the defendants paid various personal expenses with stolen credit card numbers and bank account information obtained by Kirkland.

Fox paid Kirkland a cash fee, usually 50 percent of the amount of the expenses paid. The transactions in the conspiracy amounted to more than $220,000, most of which were reversed.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

DETROIT (BNO NEWS) – Mayor of the City of Ecorse, Michigan Herbert Worthy on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery, prosecutors said.

The charge comes in connection with a federal investigation into corruption in the City of Ecorse.

According to the Worthy’s written plea agreement, beginning in November 2007 and continuing through December 2008, Worthy admitted to accepting multiple cash bribes in return for using his official position to ensure that Michigan Municipal Services (MMS), a company owned by co-defendants Stacey Tarockoff and Sheldon Divers, would be selected, retained, and paid for providing public works services to the City of Ecorse.

Between November 2007 and December 2008, MMS billed the City of Ecorse for more than $3.1 million. Worthy admitted that he received more than $30,000 in cash from the owners of MMS.

A sentencing date will be set by the court. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Worthy faces a sentence ranging from 46 to 57 months in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 plus restitution, as determined by the court.

Mayor Worthy was one of three defendants charged with multiple counts of bribery, fraud, and conspiracy.