Disgraced ex-Taylor mayor sentenced to nearly 6 years in bribes, wire fraud case
FOX 2 - Former Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars has been sentenced to 71 months in prison for conspiring to accept bribes and engaging in wire fraud in office in federal court Tuesday.
The Court found that Sollars received bribes from Awad totaling $85,011.73 as part of a bribery scheme from 2016-2018 involving a developer with a tax foreclosure property program which involved co-defendant Shady Awad receiving awards in exchange for free home renovations or other things of value.
"Sollars, as the Mayor of the City of Taylor, pledged to represent the best interests of the citizens he represented and the voters who supported him," said U.S.Attorney Dawn Ison. "Instead, he used his elected office to award city contracts and spend campaign funds for his own personal financial enrichment."
The Taylor program acquired tax-foreclosed properties from Wayne County for redevelopment, which Sollars steered tax-foreclosed properties the City had under its Right of First Refusal Program. The court found Sollars received bribes from Awad totaling $85,011.73 as part of this bribery scheme.
There were $30,000 of renovations for Rick Sollars' home and $11,000 for his lake house, $12,000 for items like a new refrigerator, stove, $1,600 cigar humidor amid other items on the list - including thousands of dollars - all for Awad's company to get its hands on tax foreclosed properties owned by the city.
In 2015, Realty Transition was awarded all 95 of Taylor's tax-foreclosed properties; in 2016, 29 of 24 properties; in 2017, 38 of 45 properties; and in 2018, the entire property inventory, totaling 37 properties.
Investigators also found campaign account money issues with the "Committee to Elect Richard Sollars, Jr." The court found the disgraced politician engaged in a scheme to defraud his donors by fraudulently using donated funds for his personal benefit rather than for his political campaign. As part of the scheme, Sollars directed his campaign treasurer to provide him with signed blank checks from his campaign account.
Sollars then made those checks payable to Dominick’s Market in various amounts, each supposedly for payments regarding campaign catering services. Hadir Altoon, the owner of the market, then prepared false invoices for catering services that were never provided.
Altoon then provided Sollars with some or all of the proceeds from the cashed fraudulent checks for Sollars’s personal use. After an evidentiary hearing, the Court found that Sollars received $70,362.98 from this, and other, wire fraud schemes related to his campaign account.
Altoon also facilitated Sollars’s bribery activities with coconspirator Shady Awad by accepting credit card information from Awad and charging over $19,000 to Awad’s credit cards, which Altoon converted to cash and gave to Sollars.
Awad, 44, pleaded guilty back in 2021, admitting he bribed Sollars with more than $53,000 including appliances, home improvement and a gambling trip to Las Vegas.
The decision closes an ongoing legal saga for the City regarding Sollars, 50, which began in March 2019 when Taylor City Hall was raided, as well as the then-mayor's home seizing $200,000 in cash. as well as his lake house in Cement City. Sollars, while in office, was indicted in December of 2019 but the case, like many at the time, ran into lengthy delays due to the 2020 Covid pandemic.
Sollars steadfastly argued his innocence publicly, until eventually yielding to taking a plea deal in August of 2023.
Former Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars in 2019
Sollars, first elected in 2013, served in office until 2021 when his campaign missed a filing deadline with the clerk's office, leading to a failed write-in campaign, eventually won by current Mayor Tim Woolley.
The investigation was a collaboration with the FBI's Detroit Area Corruption Task Force and the US Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
"This betrayal of public trust is a stark reminder of the importance of integrity and accountability in public office," Ison said. "We remain committed to upholding the principles of justice and transparency, ensuring that such actions do not go unpunished. Today's sentencing of Mr. Sollars brings closure to a lengthy and thorough investigation of the former mayor's administration."
In December of 2019 Sollars spoke to the media on the day of his indictment.
"I am not happy about any of it," said Sollars. "But again, I am innocent and I look forward to putting this behind me."