A Federal Indictment charges the owner of Fazal Khan Engineering in Sterling Heights, with 4 counts of Bribery.
Fazullah Khan, 56 of Troy, is the 16th person to be charged in the ongoing federal investigation into pay for play public corruption involving elected officials in several Townships in the county.
In this latest case, Khan is accused of paying four bribes to Washington Township elected officials in the form of cash, an all-expense paid fishing trip and a secret financial interest in a property development.
So far eight of the 16 have taken plea deals.
Another contractor, Christopher Sorrentino, is one step closer to his own plea deal.
He is charged with one count of Structuring after allegedly getting a no-work contract in which he was paid hundreds of thousand of dollars and kicked back $66,000 to an unnamed elected official in Macomb Township.
Sorrentino has a plea hearing set before a Federal Judge on Oct. 3.
At the center of that case is Macomb Township Supervisor Janet Dunn who told 7 Investigator Jim Kiertzner, she did not know how this happened.
Sorrentino’s Defense Attorney Arthur Weiss would not say if the elected official paid the bribes is Trustee Dino Bucci. He’s also the subject of a Civil Lawsuit alleging he demanded kickbacks from another developer. That case is still pending.
Macomb Township Clerk Kristi Pozzi wants an outside auditor to come in and examine the bid system. The board decided to take a look at costs at the next meeting on the 27th.
Pozzi said she tried to find out what went wrong in the Sorrentino case but there were too many unanswered questions. Also at Wednesday night’s township board meeting several residents called for resignations or recalls of Dunn and Bucci.
Sorrentino is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond after being arraigned. He waived having his case go before a Grand Jury which is another indication he's going to take a plea deal and be a star witness for the feds.
