DETROIT – A federal court has denied former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO William Smith’s appeal to his 19-year prison sentence for stealing millions of dollars from the nonprofit.
According to a document filed on Wednesday by Clerk Kelly Stephens of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Sixth District, Smith waived “any right he may have to appeal his sentence on any grounds” if his ”sentence of imprisonment does not exceed the midpoint of the guideline range determined by the Court or 235 months, whichever is greater."
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Since the arguments Smith raised in his appeal fell within the scope of that waiver, the appellate waiver bars his appeal, Stephens wrote.
Smith, 53, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in November after accepting a plea agreement in the case and admitted to orchestrating a scheme to embezzle $44.3 million in funds from the organization from November 2012 through May 2024.
Smith was formally fired from the Conservancy in May 2024 amid an FBI investigation into the embezzled funds, which he reportedly spent on airline tickets, hotels, limos, clothing, jewelry, luxury goods and more.
Read more: How former Detroit Riverfront CFO embezzled $40 million undetected for over a decade
According to a criminal complaint, Smith had used Conservancy funds to pay for his family’s credit card bills and diverted nonprofit funds to The Joseph Group, a company he controlled.
Authorities said neither of Smith’s actions was authorized or approved by the Board, that The Joseph Group was not an approved vendor and provided no services to the nonprofit. As CFO, Smith had sole access and control over the Conservancy’s bank accounts and was the only person with the password for its business checking account online portal.
Smith also reportedly doctored bank statements provided to the Conservancy’s accountant, which resulted in falsified financial information being entered into the nonprofit’s accounting software, which hid the fraud.
In addition to his 19-year prison sentence, Smith was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $44.3 million in restitution.
In his appeal, Smith argued that the court imposed his sentence arbitrarily, suggesting that it should not have applied “both sophisticated-means and sophisticated-laundering enhancements when calculating his offense level.”
However, citing a preceding case, the court noted that due to the appellate waiver, “only challenges to the validity of the waiver itself will be entertained on appeal.”
Smith remains in federal prison in Milan, Michigan, with an earliest possible release date in June 2041.