DETROIT — A former executive at a major Detroit nonprofit was sentenced Thursday to 19 years in prison for stealing more than $40 million meant to help beautify the city’s riverfront.
Investigators said William Smith routinely used Detroit Riverfront Conservancy money for travel, hotels, limousines, household goods, clothing and jewelry. He had side gigs in real estate, a nightclub and amateur basketball.
Smith, 52, was fired as chief financial officer last May and arrested the following month. He pleaded guilty in November to wire fraud and money laundering. A federal judge in Detroit also ordered Smith to pay back the $44.3 million he stole.
Funding for the conservancy comes from private donors and public grants, and the nonprofit says Smith’s theft forced the delay of portions of a popular riverwalk project.
Smith on Thursday called his actions “wrong, plain and simple.”
“I recognize I allowed selfishness, pride and poor judgment to lead me down a destructive path,” he told the court prior to sentencing.
The conservancy is transforming miles of shoreline along the Detroit River into recreation space, with plazas, pavilions and parks. It has been the driving force behind the city’s Riverwalk.
“Every dollar that Smith spent on luxury goods for himself is a dollar that the conservancy could not spend beautifying and improving our city’s riverfront,” acting United States Attorney Julie Beck said in a release.
Smith controlled the money for waterfront projects as chief financial officer from 2011 to May 2024.
After the theft was uncovered, then-conservancy chief executive Mark Wallace resigned and the nonprofit’s auditing firm was replaced, according to The Detroit News.
The Riverfront Conservancy said he stole the money “through a complex web of deception” and is grateful he’s being punished.
“The U.S. government accurately described him as a man of ‘corrupt and depraved character,’” the conservancy said in a statement following the sentencing.
Conservancy attorney Matthew Schneider said in a victim-impact statement that Smith chose greed over Detroit’s prosperity.
“As much as Smith may wish to mask himself as a professional, upstanding Dr. Jekyll, the reality is he was embezzling in the shadows as a cunning and calculating Mr. Hyde,” Schneider wrote.
