A former executive assistant to the former Inkster mayor, who is in federal prison for a bribery scheme, was sentenced to 18 months of probation in connection to the probe.
Saif Alsenad, 34, pleaded guilty Sept. 24 to making false statements or representations to a department or agency of the United States. He was sentenced Thursday, Feb. 26, to probation and a $20,000 fine in U.S. District Court in Detroit, said Gina Balaya, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit.
He resigned Aug. 4 as director of government and public affairs for Wayne County. A day later, his name was included in a federal prosecutor’s sentencing memorandum in the case against former Inkster Mayor Patrick Wimberly. Alsenad was charged Aug. 14.
His attorney, R. Michael Bullotta, who asked for a sentence of one year of probation for Alsenad, said he was pleased with the sentence.
“As the evidence discussed today with the Court made clear, Saif was never aware at the time it occurred that Mayor Wimberly was receiving payments as bribes from an FBI informant. Saif believed, and a polygraph by the government’s chosen polygrapher (former FBI agent Michael Fitzgerald) confirmed that Saif believed the payments were to go to the City of Inkster for a parcel of property appraised by the City’s real estate agent at $100,000,” Bullotta said in an email to the Free Press after the sentencing.
“His conviction is not for being a part of Wimberly’s bribe scheme but for not fully revealing everything he knew to the FBI the first time they interviewed him without any notice at his home. Justice prevailed today and the community will benefit from Saif’s continued presence and hard work ethic to improve the lives of people in his community.”
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors called Alsenad Wimberly’s “‘second half,’ his ‘right, left, feet and hands'” from 2021 through 2023. They said after Wimberly’s apprehension, FBI agents asked Alsenad about Wimberly’s bribery scheme. They wrote: “Instead of coming clean, the defendant lied to agents and claimed he had no knowledge of the crimes Wimberly committed as mayor.”
Prosecutors said the day after Alsenad pleaded, he posted “a lengthy, self-serving message on the internet. In it, he echoed the lie he told the agents in October 2024, specifically stating that when he worked for Mayor Wimberly, he ‘didn’t know about the corruption that was quietly unfolding behind the scenes.'”
Wimberly was elected in 2019 and hired Alsenad as his executive assistant, according to Alsenad’s plea agreement. In summer 2022, a local investor met with Alsenad to inquire about buying a vacant, city-owned property.
Alsenad told the investor that Wimberly expected a bribe payment from the investor to obtain the property. The investor introduced another person, who wanted to buy the parcel, according to the plea agreement. Wimberly demanded $100,000 in cash bribe payments from the person and in exchange, he promised to help the person attain the necessary approvals to acquire the parcel.
Wimberly accepted $50,000 in cash bribes from Nov. 18, 2022, through April 4, 2023. FBI agents interviewed Alsenad on Oct. 7, 2024, and he told them that when he worked for Wimberly he “never saw anything weird,” according to the plea agreement, and that none of Wimberly’s actions stood out as questionable.
Prosecutors wrote in their memorandum that over the course of several interviews “Alsenad eventually disclosed that Wimberly wanted a personal financial benefit from any deal arranged for the property” and that Alsenad confessed to relaying this information to the initial property investor. Alsenad knew what he was doing was wrong, they wrote, “but he wanted to impress Wimberly and ‘boost’ his career.”
Alsenad was not involved in the disbursement of the bribes and he did he benefit financially from the payments to Wimberly, prosecutors said.
Bullotta filed a video and numerous letters in support of Alsenad, including one from Michigan Rep. Jamie Thompson, R-Brownstown Township, on official letterhead. Alsenad had no prior criminal record and the letters reflect Alsenad is known as being devoted to his family and the community.
Alsenad was a crime scene investigator for Inkster police from 2016 to 2022 before working in the mayor’s office until 2023. He was an ombudsman of government affairs for the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) from 2023 to 2024, then director of government and public affairs in Wayne County. He currently works for the American Arab Chamber of Commerce in Dearborn, according to Bullotta’s memorandum.
“In 30-plus years of criminal practice as both a federal prosecutor and federal defense counsel, undersigned counsel has neither prosecuted nor represented anyone like Saif Alsenad,” Bullotta wrote.
“As the letters lay bare, Saif is one of the most caring and dedicated human beings in the Detroit metropolitan area, having amassed an incredible resume of volunteerism and public service that rivals the most committed community activists anywhere in our district. Saif is a truly unique human being in his level of caring for others and his selflessness. His long track-record of service and overwhelming praise from community leaders is both impressive and unimpeachable.”
He wrote that Alsenad did not provide certain information he had concerning Wimberly and misled FBI agents with his answers. Specifically, he wrote, agents asked Alsenad if there was anything questionable about what he observed while working for Wimberly and Alsenad said he “never saw anything weird.”
“In truth, Saif had witnessed practices that he considered unusual, including the request for money for the property in question,” Bullotta wrote.
He later added: “While the offense of misleading the FBI is serious, the surrounding circumstances, including the fact that Saif lacked criminal intent, puts the offense in its proper context.” The charges, he said, have caused Alsenad “immense shame and embarrassment.”
In August, Wimberly, 51, was sentenced to two years in prison in the probe that prosecutors said involved transfers of money at a strip club, a Detroit bar and the driveway of his home. He is at a low-security prison in Florida, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. He served as mayor until 2023, when he was indicted in the fall, weeks before the general election. He was not reelected.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-aide to former Inkster mayor gets probation in bribery probe
Reporting by Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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