Documents: Business man says he gave Kwame Kilpatrick money, private jet rides in exchange for city contracts

Anthony Soave tells investigators he took former Detroit mayor on shopping trips, gave gifts to his family

DETROIT – Another businessman has told federal investigators that he bribed Kwame Kilpatrick to obtain millions of dollars in city contracts.

The Local 4 Defenders have obtained documents that were filed Wednesday in federal court in Detroit.

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They were filed by an attorney for Victor Mercado, who stands charged in connection with a corruption probe in Detroit.

READ: Mercado's motion to sever trial from codefendants

Kilpatrick, his father Bernard Kilpatrick, Detroit contractor Bobby Ferguson and Mercado- the city's former water department director – are scheduled to go on trial in September.

They're accused of conspiring up a pay-to-play scheme, allegedly meeting at the mayor's residence – the Manoogian Mansion – to come up with their plan.

"The purpose of these numerous meetings was to plot and scheme as to how to collectively obtain as much money as possible while the mayor was in office," the filing reads.

Cash, cars and Pistons tickets

According to the documents, business owner Anthony Soave, donated $125,000 to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, fixed Kilpatrick's former mistress Christine Beatty's bad credit so she could get a Land Rover, flew Kilpatrick in private jets, gave him $10,000 in courtside Detroit Pistons tickets in 2002 and took Kilpatrick on two "shopping" trips to New York.

The gifts didn't just stop at Kilpatrick. Soave said he paid $6,000 for a watch for Bernard Kilpatrick, bought a woman's handbag and shoes and arranged and paid for a Christmas time stay at the Ritz Hotel in Naples – "including paying $3,000 to a hotel employed personal trainer who arranged for the room because no rooms were publically available."

Mercado wants to go on trial separately

The documents claim he was an "unwitting victim caught between a mayor equipped with a special administrator authority over the Detroit Water and Sewer Department and Mercado's duty to the city of Detroit to keep the water flowing."