The former CFO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy is facing an 18-year prison sentence for crimes federal prosecutors credit to “avarice so extreme that it remains difficult to grasp.”
A sentencing memorandum was filed in court on April 10 against disgraced former executive William Smith, who admitted to wire fraud and money laundering, Detroit Free Press reports. The filing follows his November 2024 guilty plea to one count of each charge after stealing more than $40 million from the Riverfront Conservancy over 11 years ending in 2024.
“This was in no way a crime borne out of desperation or necessity,” federal prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum. “Private jets, suites at NFL games, floor seats at NBA games, over three million dollars in cash transfers to his mistress, luxury vehicles — Smith’s appetites were simply insatiable.”
The sentencing memo highlights how Smith misused Conservancy funds to splurge on a woman he was romantically involved with, including $3.7 million in alleged wire payments to the mistress over 11 years, the purchase of a $63,452 Maserati, and a $100,016 weeklong charter of a private yacht called “The XO of the Sea” for a Mediterranean cruise.
He’s also accused of using stolen nonprofit funds to purchase a yacht, a condo in Mexico, multiple properties in Georgia, Texas, and Michigan, and to charter a private jet for $94,023 in October 2021 for a two-day stay at a boutique hotel in Las Vegas. Other lavish expenses include more than $500,000 on Gucci and Louis Vuitton, over half a million dollars on courtside seats for Detroit Pistons games, $50,000 on jewelry in September 2022, and $45,000 for an October 2021 Detroit Lions game at the L.A. Rams stadium—where he rented a private suite for $29,000.
Federal prosecutors wrote that Smith spent the stolen money “almost exclusively on goods and services for himself, his family, and his personal associates.”
The wire fraud and money laundering charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. Smith is set to be sentenced on April 24.
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