William Smith, the former CFO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy convicted of embezzling more than $40 million from the nonprofit, is asking a federal appellate court to overturn his 19-year prison sentence, according to a new filing reported by the Detroit Free Press.
In a filing with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Nov. 18, Smith’s legal team argues the district court relied on improper factors and misapplied sentencing enhancements that inflated his punishment beyond the guideline range. Federal prosecutors, who secured Smith’s guilty plea to wire fraud and money laundering, have until mid-December to respond, the outlet reported.
The update
Smith’s attorney, Gerald Evelyn, argued in a 19-page brief that the prison term was “substantively unreasonable” and rooted in “impermissible considerations,” including comments by the judge about Detroit’s history of “white flight” and political corruption, according to the appeal reviewed by the Detroit Free Press. Evelyn said those themes brought up by the judge had no link to Smith or the crime and claimed a correct guideline calculation would have produced a 151- to 188-month sentence.
Smith, 53, was ordered by the court to pay approximately $48 million in restitution, which includes payments to both the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and Citizens Bank, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In his plea agreement, Smith had already agreed to pay no less than $44.3 million, which prosecutors described as the minimum amount directly tied to the embezzlement scheme.
This is not the first time Smith’s attorney has challenged the direction of the case midstream. In October 2024, Evelyn halted Smith’s expected guilty plea during a court hearing after prosecutors outlined the potential prison term and asset forfeiture totals. The judge recessed the proceeding and later confirmed that a dispute had arisen between the parties, delaying the plea until a new date could be set.
The crime
From 2011 to 2024, Smith controlled the conservancy’s financial operations and used that authority to move millions through shell companies, personal credit cards and unauthorized cashier’s checks, according to court documents and DOJ statements. Prosecutors said he transferred $24.4 million to an entity he controlled, used nearly $15 million in nonprofit funds to pay personal American Express bills and falsified bank statements to hide the losses.
He also obtained a $5 million line of credit under false pretenses, then used it to refill conservancy accounts when cash ran short, according to the plea agreement. His spending included multiple homes, a yacht named SS Duo, a nightclub and gifts to family, friends and a mistress, according to federal investigators.
Failure of financial controls
CFO.com reporting has detailed that control weaknesses inside the conservancy allowed the scheme to go undetected for more than a decade. Smith was the only person with access to the nonprofit’s checking account, as previously reported by the Detroit Free Press. The same audit firm reviewed the books for more than 10 years, and board oversight was hindered by conflicts of interest linked to Invest Detroit, whose CEO and chairman also served on the conservancy board.
The conservancy has since announced reforms that include a whistleblower policy, ethics hotline, auditor rotation and a plan to shrink its 55-member board to 30 members with term limits.
