City of Taylor, Michigan
Outcome
Former Taylor Mayor Richard Sollars pleaded guilty in August 2023 and was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison for accepting more than $85,000 in bribes from a real estate developer in exchange for directing tax-foreclosed city properties to the developer, while also defrauding campaign donors through false invoice schemes.
Details
City of Taylor, Michigan — Mayor Bribery and Campaign Fraud (2016–2018)
Outcome: Former Taylor, Michigan Mayor Richard Sollars was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison for accepting over $85,000 in bribes from a real estate developer in exchange for directing tax-foreclosed city properties to the developer's company, and separately defrauding campaign donors through a false invoice scheme.
Richard Sollars served as Mayor of the City of Taylor. Between 2016 and 2018, he exercised his authority as Mayor and recommended to the Taylor City Council that Realty Transition — a company owned by co-defendant Shady Awad — be awarded the vast majority of the tax-foreclosed properties the city acquired under its Right of First Refusal (ROFR) program, a program designed to allow Taylor to acquire tax-foreclosed properties from Wayne County for redevelopment.
In exchange for directing these city contracts and property awards, Awad bribed Sollars with more than $85,011.73 in cash, home appliances, home renovation work, and a gambling trip to Las Vegas. Awad pleaded guilty in 2021 and was separately sentenced for his role.
In a separate fraud scheme, Sollars directed his campaign treasurer to provide signed blank checks from his campaign account, made them payable to a local market purporting to represent catering services, and arranged for the market owner to prepare false invoices for services never provided — then pocketed the cash proceeds for personal use.
Sollars pleaded guilty in August 2023 and was sentenced in 2024. His co-defendant Shady Awad was also sentenced for the bribery conspiracy in October 2024.
Primary Source: Former Taylor Mayor Sentenced to Nearly 6 Years in Prison for Bribery Conspiracy
How Crucible Prevents This
Crucible's conflict-of-interest disclosure hook would have flagged the mayor's undisclosed financial relationship with a vendor receiving city contract awards. A competitive bidding compliance control monitoring sole-source or directed awards of tax-foreclosed properties would have surfaced the unusual concentration of awards to a single developer. Crucible's campaign finance reconciliation hook would have detected the fictitious catering invoices used to convert donor funds to personal cash.
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