Engineering Firm Owner Charged with Bribery of Washington Township Officials

An owner of an engineering firm, Fazullah Khan, 56, of Troy, was indicted today by a grand jury with four counts of bribery, Acting United States Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch announced.

Lemisch was joined in the announcement by David P. Gelios, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service.

The indictment alleges that in 2014, Khan bribed public officials of Washington Township with $11,000 in cash, a free fishing trip and a secret financial interest in a property development deal. Unbeknownst to Khan, the township officials he was attempting to bribe were working with the FBI.

This case is part of the government’s wide-ranging corruption investigation centered in Macomb County, Michigan. The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. Gardey and R. Michael Bullotta.

Each of the four bribery charges carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

An indictment is only a charging document and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.