FBI probes IT deal, Ficano’s former aides; Plymouth Township business
- Turkia Mullin
- Tahlr Kazml
- Azzam Elder
- Renee Axt
September 18, 2012 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
The company had planned to build a data center in Ohio, but located it in Plymouth Township and created about 250 jobs.
THE DETROIT NEWS BY: JOEL KURTH
Detroit — FBI agents investigating the administration of Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano are scrutinizing his former aides’ dealings with one of the county’s largest information technologies contractors.
Three years ago, Ficano hailed a deal with Southfield firm Secure 24 as a money-maker that would vault Wayne County into the data-backup business. In return for building a $5 million data center in Plymouth Township, Secure 24 received state tax credits worth $710,000 per year and a five-year contract to back up county data and host its servers for about $2 million a year.
The deal called for the county’s costs to fall when new communities signed up to store data. Three years later, none has.
“This was supposed to do big things and make money for the county,” said Commissioner Ilona Varga, D-Lincoln Park. “It was very exciting and a big push to get it done. … Something didn’t work, and now I’m not surprised.”
Several former county officials involved in the deal have been charged with crimes or are under investigation, and a February search warrant alleged Secure 24 “is involved in corruption in Wayne County government.”
Federal agents questioned company officials about whether they were solicited for bribes and checked to see if county emails were deleted from backup servers.
The company spent this spring and early summer turning over emails between the company and former county officials to the FBI — and has received “unequivocal, 100 percent assurances” from U.S. attorneys that it is not a target of the investigation, said John Truscott, a Lansing strategist retained as Secure 24’s spokesman.
He called the search warrant language “poorly worded” and “misleading.” The company is cooperating with the FBI and probably was contacted because agents are probing county information technologies contracts, Truscott said.
“We assume the FBI is looking at everything. They asked for quite a bit of information from Secure 24, but we think they’ve been mentioned just because they did business with the county,” Truscott said.
He said the Secure 24 officials weren’t solicited for bribes and didn’t pay any. June West, a spokeswoman for Ficano, said the company “has been above board in all its dealings.”
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined comment.
Data center built in area
County Commissioner Laura Cox, R-Livonia, said the Secure 24 contract “looked like a good deal.” The company had planned to build a data center in Ohio, but located it in Plymouth Township and created about 250 jobs.
In his 2009 State of the County speech, Ficano called the deal “technology at work for all of us” and predicted it would serve “the needs of all 43 communities in Wayne County.”
Those who pushed the deal hardest have since left the county in controversy.
“It’s not surprising the FBI would look back now, given that everyone involved is under suspicion,” Cox said.
It was the first big county project for IT director Tahir Kazmi. His deputy, David Edwards, sold the service to commissioners. Both quit this year, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from separate contractors and are cooperating with federal authorities.
Their bosses — former Deputy Executive Azzam Elder and former Economic Development director Turkia Mullin — were also instrumental in the deal and are under investigation by the FBI, according to subpoenas and search warrants.
Renee Axt, a Detroit consultant, worked as a consultant for Secure 24 and lobbied commissioners to approve the plan, Cox and Truscott said.
Axt was a member of the Wayne County Airport Authority at the time — the same agency that hired Mullin as its CEO last year after a heavily criticized process that also is under investigation by the FBI.
Mullin was fired Oct. 31, two weeks after the FBI served subpoenas on Ficano’s administration. Axt quit as chairwoman of the authority a week later. She didn’t return messages seeking comment.
Secure 24 first surfaced in the probe in October, when a federal grand jury subpoenaed its contracts and those of other companies involved in a business development nonprofit Mullin led.
The group, the Wayne County Business Development Corp., paid Mullin a $75,000 bonus that supplemented her $200,000 county salary. Axt was vice president of the nonprofit, and Secure 24 donated $10,000 to the group in 2010, according to IRS records.
A federal grand jury also subpoenaed county contracts of other members of the nonprofit, which also paid for county officials to travel overseas for business development.
Secure 24’s name emerged again in a recently unsealed February warrant to search Kazmi’s home in Rochester Hills. Among the items the FBI sought were correspondence between Kazmi, Elder, Mullin and Secure 24.
FBI agents were seeking evidence Kazmi sought to alter or remove county emails. Federal papers accuse him of pressuring a coworker to alter hard drives of computers used by Elder and Mullin. Truscott said Secure 24 officials were asked by the FBI if Kazmi approached them for money or favors.
“Whenever there were meetings, Tahir paid his own way and (Secure 24’s) dealings with him were very professional,” said Truscott, adding that emails turned over to the FBI reveal nothing “inappropriate.”
“They operated by the book.”
Larry Burgess, Kazmi’s attorney, did not return messages seeking comment.
Macomb withdrew contract
Wayne County lost its first big partner in the project in May 2010, when Macomb County officials withdrew a $1.7 million, six-year contract to use the data center.
The decision canceled a press conference planned for later that day between Ficano and Macomb officials. Also that day, the plan’s chief backer in Macomb County — information technologies director Cyntia Zerkowski — unexpectedly announced her retirement.
“There were many questions about cost savings, and there weren’t any answers for them,” said Macomb County Commission chairwoman Kathy D. Vosburg, D-Chesterfield Township.
“We never got them answered and we thought they were very basic questions.”
West, the Ficano spokeswoman, said the deal is still good for Wayne County even if it didn’t attract other communities. Secure 24 has won raves for its work with the county and the deal is expected to save the county $5.7 million compared to the previous vendor, West said.
Since the contract began in 2009, Secure 24 also reduced the rate, saving the county some $1.8 million, West said.
“They’ve been doing a great job,” West said. “You can build a data center anywhere and they chose to build it in Wayne County, which is terrific. It was great job generator for the county.”
