back to article Former Detroit IT boss sent down 20 months for bathroom bung bonanza

The former head of IT for the US city of Detroit will spend the next 20 months behind bars for taking bribes while he was in office. Charles Dodd had served as director of the city's Departmental Technology Services (DTS) from 2014 to 2016, during which time he bagged nearly $30,000 in bungs from tech companies. He pleaded …

  1. GrumpyKiwi

    Take him to ... Detroit!

    It's Detroit. The surprise would have been if he wasn't taking bribes. The real surprise is just how cheaply he sold out.

    1. Fatman

      Re: Take him to ... Detroit!

      And put him to work cleaning up the city, literally.

      Detroit is loaded with abandoned buildings that are falling apart, so really make him pay "his debt to society" in the form of manual labor.

  2. Mark 85

    $30,000.... really?

    He shot himself in the foot and is getting jail time for that amount? It's good that he is but it just surprises me that was all he got.

    1. VikiAi
      Boffin

      Re: $30,000.... really?

      He is either rather dumb to not demand more, or rather smart to realise that the bigger the bribe the harder to hide.

    2. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: $30,000.... really?

      It is Detroit which is not a particularly large city, and not at all lucrative in terms of contracts. I guess $30,000 is the most you can get.

  3. Solo Owl
    WTF?

    It never fails to amaze me that someone with a secure income well into 6 digits would risk it all for just $10,000 a year. That sum would make no big difference in his lifestyle. Even lawyers (and one US Vice President) have been known to be so dumb.

  4. Big Al 23

    The IRS will be calling soon

    More than likely the IRS will want to speak to him about tax fraud as he was unlikely to have declared the extra income...

  5. Chris G
    Headmaster

    Gifted is not a verb!

    gifted

    ˈɡɪftɪd/

    adjective

    adjective: gifted

    having exceptional talent or natural ability.

    "a gifted amateur musician"

    synonyms: talented, skilful, skilled, accomplished, expert, consummate, master(ly), first-rate, polished, adroit, dexterous, able, competent, capable, apt, deft, adept, proficient;

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: Gifted is not a verb!

      The Oxford Dictionary says it is:

      Look under gift. Gift is the verb, gifted is the past participle of gift.

      VERB

      [WITH OBJECT]

      1 Give (something) as a gift, especially formally or as a donation or bequest.

      ‘the company gifted 2,999 shares to a charity’

      1. MiguelC Silver badge
  6. Aodhhan

    Add another

    Detroit has been destroyed under poor leadership for the past 40 years.

    It's had more than its share of educators and over paid city employees who have done some pretty outrageous crimes. Usually, they don't get very harsh sentences. This doesn't seem to be an exemption.

    Whomever stated Detroit isn't a large city should really learn to at least consult the "google' and spend 10 minutes educating themselves. The entire Detroit-Windsor area is quite populated.

    Also, most of the "abandoned" buildings and s-hole areas have been demolished and corporations are beginning to move back to Detroit. Don't you just hate people who only 'relay' bad information, instead of having the brain power to do their own fact checking?

    Although it's far from being anything spectacular, it's still better than NYC, Chicago, Cleveland and other cities with abandoned, s-hole neighborhoods.

    1. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: Add another

      I did Google it, and got an answer of 672,795 people.

      I am aware that the metropolitan area has a population of 4.3m, which is quite big, but not relevant in terms of contracts with Detroit City Council. Windsor, while very nearby on the other side of the river, is in Canada, and particularly not relevant to the discussion at hand.

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