On April 24, 2025, William A. Smith — a longtime Chief Financial Officer of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy in Detroit, Michigan — was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison and ordered to pay at least $44.3 million in restitution after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, following an FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation Division investigation that uncovered an 11-year embezzlement scheme running from November 2012 through May 2024. Smith, who held sole control of the Conservancy's bank accounts, diverted approximately $24.4 million to a shell company he owned called The Joseph Group, Inc., which provided no goods or services to the nonprofit, and funneled an additional $14.9 million in personal American Express charges through a second entity, William Smith and Associates LLC. He fraudulently obtained a $5 million line of credit using forged board-approval documents and physically doctored the bank statements he provided to the Conservancy's bookkeeper, allowing falsified figures to flow into the organization's accounting software undetected for nearly twelve years. Prosecutors documented the proceeds funding a yacht, private-jet travel, a Mediterranean cruise, a leased Maserati, a $200,000 Mercedes, a Detroit-area nightclub, and $3.7 million transferred to a romantic partner. Sentencing Judge Susan DeClercq noted that Smith chose greed every day for almost twelve years — including the day a retired schoolteacher donated her tax refund to the Conservancy's matching campaign, trusting that every dollar would reach the riverfront her grandchildren played beside.