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The FBI has quietly taken over a potential fraud investigation into Gayanga Co., a Detroit-based contractor suspected of using contaminated dirt to backfill demolition sites of Detroit homes, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Mike Duggan, last September in his final months as mayor, asked DPD to investigate. In late December, he publicly announced the DPD investigation.
Nancy Kaffer of the Detroit Free Press reported on Friday that when she inquired about the investigation, Detroit Police Media Relations Director Jasmin Barmore responded in writing:
"FBI is handling this matter."
Kaffer reports spokespersons for Duggan and Mayor Mary Sheffield said DPD decided to hand the investigation over to the FBI late last year, presumably shortly after Duggan made public the DPD investigation.
Kaffer writes:
The FBI's involvement is an additional complication for Duggan, now running in this year's gubernatorial race as an independent, and whose candidacy rests on his accomplishments as mayor of Detroit. And it's a lingering cloud for Sheffield, after news broke last year that as a council member in 2019 she voted to award contracts worth millions to Gayanga, while dating CEO Brian McKinney.
