TAYLOR, Mich. (FOX 2) - Two Michigan men connected to the former Taylor mayor's wire fraud case have been sentenced, according to the Department of Justice on Tuesday.
Haidir Altoon, 52, of Farmington Hills and Jeffrey Baum, 49, of Allen Park were both sentenced for their part in a wire fraud scheme that involved former Mayor Rick Sollars, who was previously sentenced to 71 months in prison late in October.
Altoon, the owner of Dominick's Market and real estate developer, pleaded guilty to paying bribes to Community Development Manager Jeffrey Baum and real estate magnate Shady Awad, as well as Sollars. During his guilty plea hearing, Altoon admitted to paying bribes to Mayor Sollars by giving him tens of thousands of dollars in cash, scratch-off lottery tickets, and other items of value, and facilitating the payment of bribes to Sollars by Awad.
The payoffs were in connection with the City of Taylor’s Right of First Refusal Program (ROFR) involving tax-foreclosed properties.
The ROFR program allowed Taylor to acquire the foreclosed properties from Wayne County for redevelopment. According to court records, between 2017 and 2019, Altoon paid and/or facilitated the payment of over $80,000 in cash to Sollars and over $4,000 in cash payments and other items of value to Baum in exchange for their help getting cherry-picked tax-foreclosed properties under the city’s program.
The US Attorney's Office says Altoon conspired with Sollars to steal money from Sollars’s campaign fund by preparing false and inflated invoices for catering services that were never rendered, were prepared in amounts higher than the actual amount for the catering services provided, and/or were for catering services for which Altoon had already been paid by the City of Taylor.
2nd conviction in Taylor mayor bribery case: Party store owner's payments were scratch-off tickets, cash
During his guilty plea hearing, Hadir Altoon admitted to paying bribes to Mayor Sollars by giving him tens of thousands of dollars in cash, scratch-off lottery tickets, and other items of value, and facilitating the payment of bribes to Sollars by convicted developer Shady Awad.
Altoon was sentenced to one day behind bars to be followed by two years of supervised release with the first 6 months under house arrest, a $10,000 fine, and 100 hours of community service.
"This case should send a message to anyone who seeks to do business with local municipalities that giving into the corrupt demands of public officials does not pay. My office will aggressively prosecute and hold accountable both the bribe payer, as well as the bribe receiver, since any exchange of bribes deny the citizens of this district the honest services they expect and deserve," said United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison.
Altoon also converted blank money orders, totaling $3,000, into cash for Sollars and gave Baum $5,000 in cash for a Sollars campaign golf event. It was also part of the conspiracy that Altoon gave Baum gift cards and over $4,000 in cash.
In exchange for the cash and other items of value Altoon provided to Sollars and Baum, another developer transferred two properties and Awad transferred nine properties that were originally transferred to that other developer and Awad, respectively under the City’s ROFR program, to Altoon.
Baum further admitted to stealing between $10,000 and $20,000 from the fund for his personal use. He has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
"As the Manager of Community Development for the City of Taylor, Baum had a duty to represent the best interests of the citizens of Taylor. Instead, he used his position of trust and authority to extort money and other items of value from the contractors he was hired to supervise. Mr. Baum’s conviction and sentence should send a strong message to public employees that placing your own interests above those of the citizens of this district will not be tolerated," Ison said.