Engineering Firm Owner Sentenced for Bribing Washington Township Officials

An owner of an engineering firm, Fazlullah Khan , 58, of Troy, was sentenced yesterday to 132 months as a result of having been convicted by a jury on four counts of bribery, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced. 

Schneider was joined in the announcement by Steven D’Antuono, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Khan was convicted in July, 2019 after a five day trial that was conducted before United States District Judge Robert H. Cleland in Port Huron, Michigan.  The jury deliberated approximately an hour and a half before returning their guilty verdicts.

According to evidence presented at trial, in 2014, Khan bribed one public official of Washington Township with $10,000 in cash in return for a million dollar per year engineering contract, and another public official there with a secret financial interest in a property development deal worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for his assistance with the contract and efforts to get water and sewer lines to Khan’s property.  Unbeknownst to Khan, both township officials that he was trying to bribe were working with the FBI.

“Our office is continuing our battle against bribery and corruption every day and this sentence will hopefully serve as a deterrent to others who seek to engage in a pay-to-play scheme,” United States Attorney Matthew Schneider stated.

The sentence in this case should serve as a deterrent to anyone who tries to entice a public official to behave against the public’s interest through offering bribes,” said Special Agent in Charge D’Antuono. “Corruption in any form degrades the integrity of our democracy and will not be tolerated.  Our justice system relies upon citizens to report this type of criminal activity and I would encourage anyone who has information about public corruption to contact 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.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys R. Michael Bullotta and Steven Cares.

The conviction of Khan brings to 22 the number of individuals convicted in this corruption investigation.