Former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO William Smith lost an appeal Wednesday of his 19-year federal prison sentence for stealing $44.3 million in one of the largest, longest-running and most lucrative frauds in Detroit history.
Smith waived any right to appeal as part of an agreement to plead guilty to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges in 2024, according to an order filed late Wednesday dismissing the appeal in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
The order was filed seven months after Smith appealed, accusing U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq of issuing unreasonable and arbitrary punishment as well as subjecting him to “the whim of a district court.” The 19-year sentence in the high-profile case exceeded the punishment sought by prosecutors and was symbolic because the judge gave Smith one year in prison for each year he worked at the conservancy.
As part of his plea deal with the government, Smith waived any right to appeal if the sentence was less than 19.5 years, the order read. Smith, 53, is serving the sentence at the federal prison in Milan and his earliest release date is June 2041.
Smith’s lawyer, Gerald Evelyn, did not respond immediately to a message seeking comment Thursday.
Smith appealed after being sentenced for crimes involving eye-popping amounts of money and a long-running confidence game that exposed lax oversight by some of the region’s most powerful business leaders who were supposed to oversee a nonprofit financed by southeast Michigan’s leading philanthropies.
Smith’s lawyer wanted the judge to vacate the 19-year punishment and resentence Smith.
“The district court appeared to place outsized weight on the history and circumstances of the city of Detroit, almost the entirety of which was completed unrelated to Mr. Smith and this case,” the lawyer wrote. “For example, the district court referenced ‘white flight’ from the city, as well as political corruption in the city, none of which has any bearing on this case, and certainly not Mr. Smith’s sentence.”
The judge’s rationale for issuing a 19-year sentence was unreasonable and ignored that Smith’s thievery spanned just 12 of the 19 years he worked for the nonprofit, the defense lawyer added.
It is rare for a federal judge in Detroit to give a longer sentence than the one requested by prosecutors, legal experts said. One recent instance occurred in 2017, when Chief U.S. District Judge Sean Cox sentenced Volkswagen engineer James Liang to 40 months in prison for helping to perpetrate a $25 billion diesel emissions scandal. Prosecutors requested a 36-month sentence.
As part of the sentence, Smith was ordered to pay more than $48 million. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have been liquidating Smith’s assets seized during the investigation.
Prosecutors say Smith lived a life of luxury with the conservancy’s money. That included buying jewelry, luxury purses, rental homes in Detroit, a Southfield nightclub, a $1.5 million mansion in Novi, a yacht and real estate in Mexico, Atlanta, Texas and Michigan’s “Black Eden.”
Most of the assets, however, were saddled with costly mortgages, according to prosecutors, who expected the conservancy would recoup $2 million to $3 million.
rsnell@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Disgraced ex-Detroit Riverfront CFO William Smith loses appeal fight
Reporting by Robert Snell, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Snell, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
