Kilpatrick with wife LaTicia and newborn son Kyng. (Photo: Instagram)
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit has opened an investigation it hopes will force Kwame Kilpatrick to pay restitution he owes from his public corruption conviction in 2013, The Detroit News reports.
The action comes at a time when the 52-year-old former mayor has been on social media, soliciting funds for his new baby Kyng and for an $800,000 home in a gated community in Orlando, Fla. Kilpatrick lives in the Atlanta area and runs a virtual ministry.
Court documents filed Friday ask the court to garnish money from his and his wife LaTicia's PayPal and Plumfund accounts being used to raise money for the baby and the new home.
In 2017, court records show Kilpatrick owed $1,520,653 in restitution and $195,404 to the IRS as a result of his 2013 conviction.
Friday's filing states that Kilpatrick still owes $193,303.61 to the IRS. The other $1.5 million was wiped clean after the feds seized money and other assets from co-defendant Bobby Ferguson, a city contractor accused of rigging city contracts with Kilpatrick.
Kilpatrick was serving 28 years in prison when President Donald Trump freed him in January 2021 by commuting his sentence to time served.
Questions remain whether Kilpatrick has begun making court-ordered repayments of city government money. He has yet to make a payment in nine years toward the more than $800,000 in restitution he owes Detroit taxpayers in a separate case in state court.
The feds could seize Kilpatrick's bank accounts, garnish income or impound tax refunds.
"It's a standard post-judgment investigation and enforcement action that we routinely do in cases where the government seeks to collect restitution," Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, told Deadline Detroit Friday morning.
She declined to say whether he's made any payments.
Kilpatrick said Friday morning: "I have no comment. First I’ve heard of it."
U.S. Attorney's Office's filings
