Detroit Towing Kingpin Pleads Guilty To Bribery: Feds

DETROIT, MI – The owner of multiple towing companies in southeast Michigan pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to conspiring to commit bribery in connection with a municipal towing contract in Clinton Township, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch.

Gasper Fiore, 57, of Grosse Pointe Shores, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced on May 1, 2018. Fiore owns Boulevard and Trumbull Towing in Detroit.

"Today’s guilty plea is a significant blow to corruption in southeast Michigan," Lemisch said in a statement. "Bribery subverts representative government, and this conviction demonstrates that such conduct, by either public officials or bribe payers, will not be tolerated."

Fiore admitted that he conspired to pay bribes to Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds in order to obtain a municipal towing contract with the township, according to a statement from Lemisch's office. Fiore admitted to giving Reynolds bribes of $4,000 and $3,000 in March and May 2016 in order to get the township to pick Fiore's towing service.

Reynolds was arrested last year on corruption charges.

Fiore paid the bribes to Reynolds through Charles B. Rizzo, who was cooperating with federal law enforcement at the time, according to court records.

Rizzo is the former chief executive officer of Rizzo Environmental Services. He pleaded guilty to bribery and embezzlement charges on Nov. 9, 2017.

This case is part of the government’s wide-ranging corruption investigationcentered in Macomb County, Michigan. The investigation of this case was conductedby the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.

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