Ex-Airport Official Convicted In $5M Bribery Scheme

DETROIT (AP) — A former Detroit Metropolitan airport official has been convicted of accepting more than $5 million in kickbacks from contractors.

Federal prosecutors say it's one of the largest bribery cases in Michigan's Eastern District.

The Detroit News reports that James Warner gasped as the verdict was read Wednesday in federal court. He was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy and other crimes.

Warner was an infrastructure manager at the agency that runs Detroit Metropolitan Airport, from 2010 through 2014. The indictment quotes him as telling a contractor that kickbacks were the "cost of doing business" at the airport.

The indictment says Warner once wrote a cash demand on a napkin, passed it to a contractor and then ate it.

Federal authorities seized about $4 million from Warner last year.

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