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Press Release

Contractor Charged in Relation to Cash Kickbacks of Macomb Township Official

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Michigan

An owner of a contracting firm, Christopher Sorrentino, 51, of Macomb Township, was charged today in an information with one count of structuring financial transactions to avoid currency reporting requirements, Acting United States Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch announced.

 

Lemisch was joined in the announcement by David P. Gelios, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service.

 

The information alleges that in November of 2014, Sorrentino, at the direction of an elected official of Macomb Township, accepted a check from Macomb Township in payment for work Sorrentino did not perform. Sorrentino deposited the township check into his bank account. The elected official directed that Sorrentino pay him a cash kickback of $66,000. In order to accomplish this without creating a currency transaction report, Sorrentino wrote seven checks in amounts slightly less than $10,000. Sorrentino then caused all of the checks to be cashed and provided $66,000 in cash to the elected official.

 

This case is part of the government’s wide-ranging corruption investigation centered in Macomb County, Michigan. The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. Gardey and R. Michael Bullotta.

 

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000

 

An information is only a charging document and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Updated August 28, 2017

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Public Corruption