Detroit Airport Official On the Run, Ate Evidence of $6M Bribery Scheme
This is a wild story. It involves a former Wayne County Airport manager who has been indicted in a $5 million bribery and kickback scheme. But James Warner ate some of the evidence to hide his crime.
He is accused of pocketing millions for helping businessmen secure lucrative contracts with the Wayne County Airport Authority. Both of the contractors who paid the kickbacks have also been charged in the scandal, Detroit Free Press reports.
The evidence he ate was a restaurant napkin, on which he had written $5K. That was the proposed kickback he wanted from a businessman, prosecutors said.
Warner was indicted on eight counts of conspiracy, federal program bribery, federal program theft, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Warner also is charged with obstructing justice for allegedly altering a document he provided to the FBI during its investigation of the alleged scheme.
He was supposed to report to federal prison Thursday morning to start his 10-year sentence. But he never showed and is now on the run. Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant. and late Thursday, a federal judge approved it.
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He’s not on the run.
He committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage.
Update: Mr. Warner was found in his garage, the apparent victim of carbon monoxide poisoning.
He killed himself.