Feds: Detroit-area airport inspector got $5M in kickbacks

ROMULUS (AP) — A former Detroit-area airport official is accused of receiving more than $5 million in kickbacks from contractors.

Federal prosecutors say it’s one of the largest bribery cases in Michigan’s Eastern District.

James Warner was charged last week with conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He was an infrastructure manager at the agency that runs
Detroit Metropolitan Airport, from 2010 through 2014.

The indictment says Warner told a contractor that kickbacks were the “cost of doing business” at the airport. The indictment says Warner once wrote a cash demand on a napkin, passed it to a contractor and then ate it.

A not-guilty plea was entered when Warner appeared in court. The government so far has seized about $4 million from him.