Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A local contractor charged with fraudulently billing the City of Detroit over $1 (m) million as part of a demolition program is scheduled to appear in court.

David MacDonald of Howell is charged with conducting a criminal enterprise and 10 counts of false pretenses after obtaining backfill dirt from contaminated sources back in 2017 when the company he worked for was contracted by the City of Detroit’s demolition program.

In 2017, MacDonald was employed by the Den-Man company to lead the company’s demolition program. His responsibilities included finding backfill for all the demolition sites for which Den-Man was contracted by the City of Detroit to handle. The contract made Den-Man responsible for backfilling the sites of demolished properties with dirt from approved sources, and the company was entitled to bill the city for the acquisition price of that dirt.

The Michigan Attorney General’s Office says MacDonald repeatedly claimed to have paid for dirt used at these sites he had obtained at no cost, lied about the source of the dirt, and billed the Detroit Land Bank Authority for fictitious sums. Den-Man received $1,148,513.61 for reimbursement for backfill material without actually incurring those costs.

Furthermore, the alleged unapproved source of backfill material was considered environmentally contaminated. All of the construction sites in which MacDonald’s company was contracted, had to be tested. Those results are unknown.

MacDonald's case is currently pending in Wayne County Circuit Court. A pretrial conference is scheduled on Monday.