Towing Titan Gasper Fiore Sentenced to Prison for Bribery

Topics:  Gasper Fiore

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Michigan
2 August 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The owner of multiple towing companies in southeast Michigan, Gasper Fiore, 57, of Grosse Pointe Shores, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine today based on his conviction for conspiracy to commit bribery, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider.

Schneider was joined in the announcement by Timothy R. Slater, Special Agent In Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service.

Fiore was convicted of conspiring to pay bribes to Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds in order to obtain a municipal towing contract with the township. Clinton Township is the sixth largest municipality in the state. Fiore gave Reynolds cash bribes of $4,000 and $3,000 in March and May of 2016 in order to buy Reynolds’ vote to select Fiore’s company to receive the Clinton Township towing contract. Fiore paid the bribes to Reynolds through Charles B. Rizzo, who was cooperating with federal law enforcement at the time of the bribe payments.

Fiore is one of twenty defendants charged in the government’s wide-ranging corruption investigation centered in Macomb County, Michigan. United States District Judge Robert H. Cleland remanded Fiore into custody following the sentencing.

Information at the sentencing hearing revealed that besides his conviction for paying bribes to Reynolds, Fiore has also paid bribes to former Detroit Deputy Chief of Police Celia Washington, other law enforcement officers, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers.

“Big-time contractors like Fiore who pay bribes and corrupt communities in order to maximize their wealth face significant punishment,” stated United States Attorney Matthew Schneider. “The court’s sentence demonstrates that pay-to-play contracting will not be tolerated and will be punished.”

"Public corruption is one of the FBI's top criminal priority," said FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Timothy R. Slater. "Corruption of local, state, and federally elected, appointed, or contracted officials - strikes at the heart of government and erodes public confidence."

This case is part of the government’s wide-ranging corruption investigation centered in Macomb County, Michigan. The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. Gardey, R. Michael Bullotta, and Adriana Dydell.