Feds Investigating Macomb County Public Works Office

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — A federal grand jury is investigating the Macomb County Public Works office. But the reasons for the investigation are unclear. It’s also uncertain if the investigation — in which about a dozen county employees have been subpoenaed by the Feds — is related to the on-going Rizzo Environmental Services bribery scandal.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said Monday that FBI agents are asking questions about Anthony Marrocco, her predecessor, his former deputy, Dino Bucci, and millions of dollars in payments to an unnamed county contractor, the Detroit News reported. She declined to name the contractor saying it could damage the investigation.

“I have no idea what the FBI is looking at or what is happening in the grand jury,” Miller told the newspaper. “But we have had the FBI into the office for various documentation.”

Both Miller and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said the contractor was paid in an usual way. “On every ... one of the invoices, it says: ‘Give the check to Dino’ or ‘give the check to Marrocco.’ That’s the type of thing the FBI is looking at,” Miller told the News.

“No other department sent a check that was hand-delivered to somebody,” added Hackel.

Bucci is a Macomb Township trustee who also worked as a Marrocco deputy. He was placed on administrative leave from his county job in January and retired after being accused in a civil lawsuit of soliciting a $76,000 kickback from a local investment company that wanted a refund on certain development fees, the News reported.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are continuing to convict former local leaders in the Rizzo bribery conspiracy case. The FBI announced a wide-sweeping corruption probe last fall involving pay-to-play schemes in Macomb County. So far, five officials have been indicted -- all of them charged with taking bribes from former trash hauler Rizzo, whose owner and CEO Chuck Rizzo Jr. resigned amid the investigation. The trash hauler has since been sold to a Canadian company and the Rizzo brand has been dissolved, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Former Macomb Township Trustee Clifford Freitas has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors and is expected to plead guilty June 1, according the Detroit News. Freitas is accused of pocketing $7,500 in bribes from Rizzo between July 2015 and January 2016.

Former Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds is the only person charged in the corruption case without a plea deal. He was indicted in November and accused of taking $50,000 to $70,000 in cash from Rizzo in exchange for supporting the firm’s $3.5 million annual contract bid. He also was charged with taking $17,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent, the Detroit News reported.

Former Chesterfield Township supervisor Michael Lovelock also is expected to plead guilty June 1. In November, he was indicted on four counts of conspiracy and demanding bribes in exchange for corruptly influencing his decisions as a supervisor. He is accused of taking multiple bribes totaling more than $30,000 from 2010-16, the News reported.

Former New Haven trustees Christopher Craigmiles and Brett Harris also were accused of taking bribes from an FBI agent posing as a Rizzo employee. Both have reached plea deals and are awaiting sentencing dates in federal court, the Detroit News reported.

Photo by Mark Wilson / Staff / Getty Images News / Getty Images