A federal jury on Monday convicted former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on corruption charges for running a racketeering conspiracy that involved extortion, bribery and fraud. This conviction, which could land Kilpatrick behind bars for decades, is a significant victory for the Justice Department in its years-long push to crack down on public corruption. The charges on which Kilpatrick was convicted laid out a slew of financial transactions that might have caught the attention of anti-money laundering compliance officers and prompted the filing of Suspicious Activity Reports.U.S. prosecutors accused Kilpatrick, 42, his father and a city contractor of extorting bribes from contractors who wanted to get or keep city contracts and turning the mayor's office into "Kilpatrick Incorporated" from 2001 until he resigned in 2008. Kilpatrick reportedly steered more than $83 million worth of municipal contracts to his friend, 44-year-old Bobby Ferguson, a city contractor, who shared some of
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