TAYLOR, Mich. – A 52-year-old man from Farmington Hills has been sentenced for their role in a bribery scheme involving the former mayor of Taylor, Rick Sollars.
Previously, Sollars was sentenced to nearly six years in prison after pleading guilty to accepting bribes, Shady Awad, a 44-year-old real estate developer from Allen Park, was sentenced to more than a year behind bars for bribing the former mayor, and Jeffrey Baum, a 49-year-old who was Sollars' campaign manager, was sentenced to 18 months for his role in the bribery scheme.
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According to authorities, Haidir Altoon bribed Sollars with thousands of dollars, scratch-off lottery tickets and other valuable items. The bribes were in exchange for Sollars recommending to Taylor City Council that Altoon’s company be awarded the majority of tax-foreclosed properties through the Right of First Refusal program. The program was designed to allow Taylor to acquire tax-foreclosed properties from Wayne County for redevelopment.
Authorities said Sollars asked Altoon to cash fraudulent checks from his campaign fund. Sollars reportedly made campaign checks payable to a market Altoon owned for catering services that were not provided. Altoon allegedly created fake invoices for the nonexistent catering and gave Sollars the money from the cashed checks.
Sollars received more than $70,300 from the scheme and transferred nine properties to Altoon.
Altoon was sentenced to one day behind bars, two years of supervised release, six months of house arrest and 100 hours of community service for conspiring to commit bribery. He will also pay a $10,000 fine.
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