Mar 17, 2010

Cloud still hangs over ‘Manoogian’ Mike Cox


The trouble continues for the ethically challenged Michigan Republican Gubernatorial candidate “Manoogian” Mike Cox.

Subscription only MIRS is reporting that former Detroit area trash king Anthony Soave’s personal PAC has contributed more than $42,000 to Cox since 2005.

Soave has a shady past; “including unproven allegations that he had links to organized crime. Soave's City Management was once the largest trash hauling and landfill company in Michigan. In 1998, he sold it to Waste Management for a reported $750 million. Soave is now CEO of Soave Enterprises, one of the nation's largest private holding companies with annual revenues of $1.6 billion a year. The company has real estate holdings, scrap yards, recycling facilities, landfills, beer distributorships, car dealerships, construction companies and taxi fleets.”

According to an article published by the Traverse City Record Eagle on Oct. 15, 2006, “Soave had been investigated by the FBI, Michigan State Police, and New Jersey State Police. He has been indicted just once, in 1971, on federal gambling conspiracy charges, along with several known gamblers and bookies. The case was later dismissed after a judge tossed out wiretap evidence. Past allegations that Soave made loans to members of Detroit organized crime families and in 1999, described the loans to The Detroit News as money he'd given to his old neighborhood when they were down on their luck.”

But Soave has close ties to disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, as does Cox who obstructed an investigation linked to Kilpatrick and the never-proven 2002 Manoogian Mansion stripper party and murder of dancer Tamara Greene.

Detroit area TV stations have reported that Soave flew Kilpatrick around in his company jets - including a trip to Tallahassee and back after Kilpatrick's text message scandal broke. Along with the flights, Detroit area TV station WXYZ speculated that Soave or entities connected with him paid for Kilpatrick's publicized 2007 family vacation at the Ritz-Carlton Resort in Naples, Florida, including a nearly $10,000 hotel bill.

Despite his best attempts at killing the case, the Greene case continues to haunt Cox.

MIRS is also reporting that on Monday the Capitol was abuzz with the news that “a former assistant to Cox was deposed in the Tamara Greene civil case. Three Detroit-area TV stations reported that Brooke Jordan, whose maiden name was Brooke Liszak when she worked as an assistant AG in the special litigation division of Cox's office from 2004 to 2006, was disposed by the plaintiffs' attorney in the civil case. MIRS reported that Liszak married one of Cox's former drivers and the couple moved to Arizona so he could pursue a career in law enforcement.”

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