By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
DETROIT –– David Gelios tenure as head of the FBI in Detroit has been relatively brief but extremely productive.
After becoming the special agent in charge of the office in October 2015, he began overseeing some major public corruption cases. Twelve Detroit school principals and a school administrator were indicted for taking kickbacks from a vendor for school supplies that were ordered but never delivered. The vendor also went to prison.
In Macomb County, outside of Detroit, a number of officials were indicted for taking bribes from a garbage hauler, who was also charged along with his father. And in Detroit, just recently, the former deputy police chief, pleaded guilty to taking a $3,000 bribe from a titan of the towing industry.
As for the probe into Macomb County, he says: “We’re not done yet.”
Now, after nearly 23 years with the bureau, he’s retiring on Jan. 31, just shy of 57, the mandatory retirement age at the FBI. He’s taking a job in San Diego with the Roger Penske organization.
We visited Gelios in his downtown office this week to chat about his tenure, the public corruption probes, industrial espionage, meeting Trump in Detroit and the impact of presidential criticisms of the bureau.
