Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s wife bought an $807,000 house in an upscale residential enclave in Novi last month, even as her convicted felon husband still owes a hefty amount of money in back taxes and restitution stemming from his corruption conviction in 2013.
LaTicia Kilpatrick, who married the disgraced former mayor in July 2021 at Detroit’s Historic Little Rock Baptist Church, purchased the home through the Pathfinder Consulting Firm, a Warren-based company that she owns. She took out a $645,600 mortgage, according to property records obtained by Metro Times.
As of November, Kilpatrick, who was released from prison and is now a pastor, still owed more than $1 million in restitution and unpaid taxes, the Detroit Free Press reported.
In the summer of 2022, federal prosecutors launched an investigation in an effort to recover the unpaid restitution after Kilpatrick and his wife created a crowdfunding campaign to raise $800,000 for a new home in Orlando, Fla.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Anjali Prasad tells Metro Times that the Kilpatricks may believe they are being clever by purchasing the home through LaTicia Kilpatrick, but that won’t stop federal prosecutors from seeking a lien on the home.
“They are very, very, very good at what they do,” says Prasad, who owns the criminal defense firm Prasad Legal. “They are good at what they do. This idea that he can be lawfully married and somehow channel money through his wife to purchase a home, which under the law would be a marital asset, is wishful thinking. It matters not whose name is on the title or mortgage. This is a joint marital asset.”
Prasad points out that the Justice Department’s Financial Litigation Unit is effective at recovering restitution after a conviction.
“I’m 110% sure that the feds can and will put a lien on that home,” Prasad says.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the Kilpatricks are living at the home yet. When a Metro Times reporter knocked on the door on Friday, a Black woman answered and claimed the Kilpatricks don’t live there. She declined to answer any further questions.
A Bible study video posted by Kwame Kilpatrick on Facebook on Friday morning showed cabinets in the background that look identical to the ones shown in photos for the home’s real estate listing.
Since former President Donald Trump commuted Kilpatrick’s 28-year prison sentence in 2021, federal authorities have expressed frustration that the former mayor has failed to pay his restitution, despite having income.
In February 2023, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds lambasted Kilpatrick for only paying $5,000 in federal restitution, saying he “has a history of spending his money on a lavish lifestyle rather than paying off his obligations.”
According to documents obtained by Metro Times, Kwame and Laticia Kilpatrick created four limited liability companies in the past three years in Georgia, where they were recently living. Late last year, the former mayor was hired as executive director of Taking Action for Good, a Memphis, Tenn.-headquartered nonprofit which focuses on reducing lengthy sentences for people imprisoned for nonviolent crimes.
Kilpatrick served more than seven years in prison after being convicted of numerous crimes in March 2013, including fraud, extortion, racketeering conspiracy, and tax crimes.
According to a recent real estate listing, the Kilpatricks’ new 5,600-square-foot home on Southwyck Court near Nine Mile Road features five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a three-car garage, a catwalk overlooking a “dramatic” open room with a dual-sided wood burning fireplace, and a main bedroom with a fireplace and bathroom with a carpeted dressing area, dual large walk-in closets, dual vanities with quartz countertops, and custom mirrors.
The home is blurred out on Google Maps.
Kilpatrick’s wife gave birth to a baby boy in June 2022 and last year announced they were expecting a baby girl.
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