DETROIT – Two former contractors with the Detroit Public Library were sentenced Wednesday on charges of bribery of a public official, officials said.
U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh sentenced James Henley, 44, of Detroit, and Ricardo Hearn, 32, of Royal Oak, to 27 months and 28 months, respectively, according to authorities.
The judge also ordered to pay $750,000 in restitution to the Detroit Public Library for losses suffered by the library as a result of the crimes, officials said.
“This case demonstrates that not just bribe takers, but bribe payers will be held accountable in appropriate cases. Everyone who corrupts the system should be brought to justice,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade.
“All those involved in the misappropriation of government funds for their own selfish purposes violate federal law and betray the trust of the citizens they purport to serve,” stated Paul M. Abbate, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office.
According to court records, this is what happened:
Henley and Hearn paid former Detroit Public Library Chief Administrative Officer Timothy Cromer a total of $1.4 million in kickbacks in return for contracts for information technology services with the Detroit Public Library during the period 2007 to 2010.
After being confronted by federal law enforcement officials, Henley and Hearn both cooperated in the prosecution of Cromer.
On September 16, 2014, Cromer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the bribery conspiracy, and ordered to pay $3,913,890.42 in restitution to the library.
Henley owned a company called Core Consulting & Professional Services.
Cromer approved a proposal submitted by Core Consulting to provide information technology work, and approved various extensions and change orders to the contract, the evidence indicated.
Ultimately, the Library paid Core Consulting almost $2 million under the contract, and Henley secretly paid kickbacks to Cromer totaling over $650,000 during the period 2007 to 2008.
Henley also pleaded guilty to failing to file tax returns for the year 2007.
Hearn, who owned Cubemation LLC, paid Cromer kickbacks totaling about $800,000 in exchange for Cromer approving no-bid professional services contracts for Hearn’s company to perform information technology services for the library from 2008 until 2010.
Cubemation received about $3.2 million in payments from the Detroit Public Library