Kwame Kilpatrick restitution deal: Attorney explains how ex-mayor got amount lowered

Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to repay $800K in restitution

The former mayor of Detroit has worked out an agreement to repay the city. 

FOX 2 - Detroit’s ex-Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, entered an agreement with the government to pay over $800,000 in restitution.  

Dig deeper:

Despite President Donald Trump commuting Kilpatrick’s 28-year prison sentence, he still left an obligation to repay the City Of Detroit.  

Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 felony counts in 2013 including for bribery and racketeering in a pay-for-play scandal.  His restitution was reduced from $1.7 million to about $800,000. 

Gabi Silver, a longtime criminal defense attorney, explained the process.

FOX 2: "It’s a lot less?"

"It is," she said. "You know the order doesn’t really speak to how it got to be less, so it looks like it was a stipulation between the government and Mr. Kilpatrick. But if the restitution was joined several, it’s entirely possible that other people who had been charged, paid some of the amounts and the amounts were paid down."

FOX 2: "You know the order doesn’t really speak to how it got to be less?"

"It looks like it was a stipulation between the government and Mr. Kilpatrick, but if the restitution was joined several, it’s entirely possible that other people who had been charged, paid some of the amounts, like Bobby Ferguson," Silver said.  

Ferguson is a former contractor for the City of Detroit and friend of Kilpatrick, who was convicted as part of the corruption scandal.  

FOX 2: "So Kwame Kilpatrick gets credit for Bobby Ferguson paying the City Of Detroit?"

"If the restitution amount frequently in criminal cases, says that the restitution amount is to be joint in several, so in other words, if one defendant pays $1 million, all of them are gonna get credit for that million dollars," she said.

FOX 2: "Is that fair?"

"Well, I mean, is there anything really fair in the criminal justice system," she said. "I mean that's what the law says."

Related:

• Kwame Kilpatrick opens up about his rise, fall and his new life ahead
• Feds claim Kwame Kilpatrick is lying about address to 'waste time and resources'
• Kwame Kilpatrick raising $800K to buy home despite owing Detroit -- What could happen to the donated money

Kilpatrick agreed to allow the government to take part of his legislative pension.  

Details of the order were kept private, as was Kilpatrick’s  restitution payment.