Council Member Monica Conyers is not only the subject of public corruption probe involving a sludge hauling contract, but she’s also the target of other suspected payoffs including ones from a Detroit pawnshop.
DETROIT — Federal agents are investigating allegations that Councilwoman Monica Conyers received thousands of dollars in jewelry from a pawn shop whose owner urged the council to ease off on plans to increase regulation of his business, people familiar with a City Hall corruption investigation told The Detroit News.
One estimate pegged the value of the jewelry from Zeidman’s Jewelry and Loan at about $40,000, sources said.
Agents also are investigating allegations that Conyers was to receive payment for favorable consideration of an investment proposal or proposals submitted to the General Retirement System, where Conyers was a trustee, by Detroit businessman Melvin Washington and his Phoenix Group companies, sources said.
Conyers, who is the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, has yet to respond to federal prosecutors’ offer to plead guilty to a five-year bribery-related felony charge, the sources said, adding that an indictment could be looming. Conyers doesn’t want to plead to anything more than a misdemeanor, they said.
