Michigan public school contractor pleads guilty to $561K bribe scheme

(The Center Square) – A Michigan school contractor pleaded guilty to giving a $561,000 bribe to a former school board president in return for $3.1 million of projects for his company.

United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced that John David, age 65, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Laurie Michelson to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery from 2014 through 2018 and bribery for programs receiving federal funds.

Court records say David conspired with Albert Morrison, the former School Board president of Madison District Public Schools in Madison Heights in a half-million dollar pay-to-play scheme.

Morrison was the elected president of the MDPS Board of Education from 2012 through 2018.

While Morrison was president, David was an owner of a building maintenance and reconstruction company, Emergency Restoration, that was awarded more than $3.1 million in projects for the MDPS.

Court records say, David, a long-time friend of Morrison, wrote more than $550,000 in checks from his company to Morrison’s company, Comfort Consulting, from 2014 through 2018.

Morrison deposited David’s checks into his own bank account. The investigation uncovered $561,667 in payments from David to Morrison. David admitted he had to “pay to play” in the school district, and David’s companies received approximately $3.16 million from the Madison District during the bribery conspiracy.

Morrison spent the money from David on personal luxuries such as vacations in Florida and a boat slip.

To keep the payments secret, Morrison, when publicly confronted at a MDPS school board meeting, denied having any financial ties to David or Emergency Restoration. Morrison and David also failed to disclose to the state of Michigan auditors the payments Morrison received from David.

“Our community deserves school systems free of corruption,” Ison said in a statement. “This prosecution demonstrates our commitment to ensure that public officials in our educational systems put the interests of our children first.”

Sentencing is set for August 14, 2023, at 1 p.m.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, and the Department of Education teamed up during this case.

The case is prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Resnick Cohen, Karen Reynolds, and Gjon Juncaj.

James A. Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, said public corruption is one of the FBI’s “top” priorities.

“Mr. David guaranteed he would receive work funded by Madison District Public Schools not by participating in a fair and transparent process, but by bribing those in positions of power,” Tarasca said in a statement. “Public corruption is one of the FBI’s top investigative priorities because of the negative impact corruption has on the public’s faith in government agencies.”