Date: April 24, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
DETROIT — Former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy chief financial officer William A. Smith was sentenced to 19 years in prison today for embezzling over $40 million from his employer over an eleven-year period, announced Acting United States Attorney Julie Beck. Smith was also sentenced to a three-year term of supervised release, ordered to pay approximately $44.3 million in restitution, and ordered to forfeit ill-gotten gains that were traceable to his scheme.
Beck was joined in the announcement by Charles Miller, Special Agent in Charge of the ibet Criminal Investigation Detroit Field Office (ibet-CI) and Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office.
Smith pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering before United States District Judge Susan K. DeClercq.
Acting United States United States Attorney Beck stated, “William Smith stole an astonishing amount of money from an important community institution, and he spent that money to finance an extravagant lifestyle. Every dollar that Smith spent on luxury goods for himself is dollar that the Conservancy could not spent beautifying and improving our city’s riverfront. This is one of the most egregious economic crimes in recent memory in this District. Smith has now been held accountable for his criminal activity and we hope that today’s sentence deters any others who contemplate enriching themselves at the expense of a public trust.”
“As the trusted leader of a local advocacy nonprofit, William Smith had a duty to be a responsible steward of the organization’s funds, especially the money raised to beautify and increase access to the Detroit Riverfront,” said Special Agent in Charge Charles Miller, Detroit Field Office, ibet-CI. “Mr. Smith proved he did not deserve that trust when he stole over $40 million from the Conservancy and by proxy, everyone who would enjoy the riverfront for many years to come. ibet-CI is proud to work with the US Attorney’s Office of Eastern Michigan and our law enforcement partners to ensure that justice is served, and Mr. Smith is held accountable for such an egregious breach of trust; stealing a huge amount of money to fund his personal lifestyle.”
"Today’s sentencing of William Smith marks the conclusion of a scheme, spanning more than a decade, deeply violating the trust of his employer and the community,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “Mr. Smith exploited his position of authority for personal financial gain. This outcome is the hard work and dedication from members assigned to the FBI Detroit’s Complex Financial Crimes (CFC) Squad and the successful prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan. We remain committed to working with our partners to investigate and pursue those who violate federal laws.”
According to court documents, Smith was employed as the chief financial officer for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Inc. (the Conservancy) from 2011 through May 2024. The Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) organization formed with the mission of developing access to the Detroit riverfront. The Conservancy envisions creation of a continuous riverwalk from the Ambassador Bridge in the west to Gabriel Richard Park in the east, along with plazas, pavilions, and green spaces. Funding for the Conservancy is provided by both private donors and public grants. In his position as chief financial officer of the Conservancy, Smith enjoyed substantial discretion in overseeing and managing the Conservancy’s financial affairs.
Court Documents indicate that beginning no later than November 2012 and continuing until May 2024, Smith orchestrated a scheme to embezzle millions of dollars in funds belonging to the DRFC. The embezzlement scheme took three principal forms:
- First, Smith diverted Conservancy funds from the organization’s bank accounts to a bank account in the name of “The Joseph Group, Inc.,” an entity owned and controlled by Smith. The Joseph Group was not an approved vendor for the Conservancy and provided no goods or services of any kind to the organization. However, between February 2013 and May 2024, Smith transferred approximately $24.4 million from the Conservancy’s bank accounts to an account in the name of the Joseph Group.
- Second, Smith maintained an American Express account in the name of another of the many entities he owned and controlled, this one called “William Smith & Associates LLC.” There were four American Express credit cards issued on this account. Between November 2012 and May 2024, Smith used approximately $14.9 million in Conservancy funds to pay off purchases made on this account. None of these expenditures were authorized by the Conservancy, which maintained other credit card accounts for Conservancy purchases. Smith used the American Express account to purchase furniture, designer clothing, handbags, lawn care services, airline tickets, and other consumer goods and services for himself and his family.
- Third, Smith used Conservancy funds to purchase cashier’s checks from various financial institutions. These cashier check purchases were unauthorized, and Smith used the cashier’s checks for his own purposes without the knowledge or approval of the Conservancy’s board of directors.
Court documents indicate Smith engaged in various practices to cover up and sustain this massive fraud scheme. In some instances, Smith falsified bank statements that he provided to the Conservancy’s bookkeeper, altering or deleting unauthorized transfers on the statements in order to keep them off of the Conservancy’s books. In at least one other instance, he took out a line of credit with a financial institution (Citizen’s Bank) on behalf of the Conservancy. Smith claimed to be acting with the authorization of the Conservancy’s board of directors in taking out this line of credit. In fact, Smith had no such authority, and the documents he provided Citizen’s Bank purporting to show that he had such authorization were forgeries. Smith used the funds from this line of credit (which eventually totaled $5 million) to infuse monies into the Conservancy’s bank accounts to help cover up his substantial embezzlement from those accounts.
Sentencing documents indicate that Smith spent the money he appropriated from the Conservancy to live a lavish and extravagant lifestyle. Over the course of his scheme, Smith spent enormous sums of money on basketball tickets, cruises, private jet travel, designer clothing, jewelry, and the like.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys John K. Neal and Robert A. Moran. Assistant United States Attorneys K. Craig Welkener and Jessica Nathan handled the asset forfeiture. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Division.
ibet-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the ibet, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. ibet-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.