Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

Former City Treasurer Jeff Beasley was charged with taking bribes and kickbacks in a six-count indictment unsealed Tuesday following a long-running FBI investigation of the city's two pension funds.

Beasley, a fraternity brother of ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's at Florida A&M University, accepted the bribes and kickbacks in return for approving more than $200 million in pension fund investments, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Beasley conspired with others to pocket bribes, including cash, travel, meals, golf clubs, drinks, gambling money, hotel rooms, entertainment, Las Vegas concert tickets, massages, limousine rides and private plane trips, prosecutors said.

"I had no idea the kind of money and the kind of things they said he was getting," said George Orzech, a trustee on the city's police and fire pension board. "It just blows my mind. It's sad. That was a dark time in the pension board history."

If convicted, Beasley faces up to 20 years in prison. Charges include extortion, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud.

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