Source: Office of United States Attorneys
DETROIT – The United States Attorney’s Office made significant strides in 2024 in rebuilding community trust, reinvigorating our protection of civil rights, and restructuring our approach to violent crime, United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced today. The details of the office’s work in 2024 are set forth in a 62-page annual report highlighting prosecutions, community outreach, trials, convictions, systemic change, and community impact.
United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison stated, “Our office is immensely proud of the work we did in 2024, reducing crime, protecting civil rights, defending our borders, and protecting the federal treasury. This work could not have been accomplished without partnerships across the Eastern District of Michigan. Our dedicated team of lawyers and support staff worked with local, state, and federal law enforcement and community partners to improve the lives of the residents of the Eastern Michigan. This annual report represents the highlights of this work because it would be impossible to detail everything that this incredible team accomplished in 2024.”
The document is available here for review by the public. The report sets forth the work done in service of the richly diverse Eastern District of Michigan. The lawyers and support professionals in our Detroit, Flint, and Bay City offices, along with our partner agencies, had significant accomplishments this year. Among them:
• In fiscal year 2024, our office collected $45,395,510.25 in criminal and civil actions. Of this amount, $32,629,919.83 was collected in criminal actions and $12,765,590.42 was collected in civil actions. These funds are being returned to victims and taxpayers.
• Our efforts to target the most violent offenders who are harming public safety resulted in numerous federal convictions. We obtained a life sentence for the leader of the Seven Mile Bloods Gang who terrorized Detroit’s east side for many years. We also obtained Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) convictions for three senior members of the Almighty Vice Lords Nation, a criminal enterprise that operates across the country, including in Detroit. One of the three defendants was sentenced to 70 years in prison while the other two each received 60-year sentences.
• We reached a landmark settlement agreement with the Wayne County Jail resolving allegations that the Wayne County Jail routinely failed to provide crucial services to inmates with disabilities, including access to appropriate prescription medications, mental health services and medical equipment, and failed to conduct medical and mental health assessments.
• We obtained a guilty plea from the former Chief Financial Officer of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy who had embezzled more than 40 million dollars from the nonprofit. We also obtained a restitution agreement requiring him to pay no less than $44.3 million in restitution as a result of his conduct.
• We remained committed to rooting out public corruption in our community as 2024 saw the Mayor of Inkster plead guilty to bribery charges and the Mayor of Taylor sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to receive bribes and wire fraud.
• We charged five Chinese nationals, who were students at the University of Michigan, with conspiracy, false statements, and destruction of records in a federal investigation after they were caught photographing military equipment during a joint training exercise involving the Michigan National Guard and the Taiwanese military at Camp Grayling, a U.S. military installation.
• We obtained a 33-year sentence for an incident that took place on the Isabella Reservation in Indian Country where the defendant shot and killed his domestic partner and caused life-threatening injuries to a six-month-old child.
• We convicted seven individuals for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by using physical obstruction to intimidate and interfere with employees and patients of a reproductive health clinic.
Although we are encouraged by the results of our efforts in 2024, we recognize that we still have more work to do. The work detailed in the 2024 Annual Report details our ongoing efforts to keep our community safe, protect civil rights, and ensure fairness and opportunity for everyone in our community. Each day, the 210 men and women of the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work diligently to further these goals and to advance the interests of our nation.