Trash Company Exec Resigns Amid FBI Corruption Probe

Chuck Rizzo Jr., the top executive at a family trash hauling empire linked to a sweeping FBI investigation into government corruption across Southeast Michigan, resigned Tuesday after a second elected official in Macomb County was arrested on a federal bribery charge.

Pay-to-play deals were cited in municipal garbage contracts to Sterling Heights-based Rizzo Environmental Services in the arrest Tuesday of Macomb Township Trustee Clifford Freitas and last week’s arrest of Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds. Freitas is accused of taking $44,500 in bribes, and Reynolds allegedly took up to $70,000 in bribes, according to U.S. District Court documents.

In a written statement, Patrick Dovigi, president and chief executive of Rizzo’s parent company, GFL Environmental Inc., said Rizzo resigned in “the best interests of the company and our customers.” Dovigi will oversee Rizzo’s business on an interim basis until further notice, according to the statement.

GFL Environmental only acquired Rizzo Environmental Services last month, a few weeks before Reynolds’ arrest. The charges came as a surprise, according to the statement.

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“The allegations surrounding Rizzo Environmental’s potential involvement in the FBI’s investigation were first brought to our attention following local press reports, which speculated that a principal at Rizzo had made cash payments to Dean Reynolds in connection with a Clinton Township contract. These allegations, which reportedly occurred in late 2012 through 2015, predate GFL’s acquisition of Rizzo last month. We had no prior knowledge of the FBI’s investigation or the allegations associated with elected officials in Macomb County,” according to the statement.

“Upon learning of the situation, we immediately began the process of conducting our own internal investigation to better understand the facts. While our review is ongoing, the allegations that have been presented in two federal criminal complaints are completely counter to the way we that GFL does business. Adhering to the highest ethical policies and conducting our business with the utmost integrity are among GFL's most important priorities. We are outraged by the allegations that have been reported and have zero tolerance for employee misconduct or unprofessional behavior.”

The new owners also said they plan toreplace Rizzo's trademark red garbage trucks. “We’re switching the name of the company to GFL,” Dovigi said. “The Rizzo company will be going away from this point forward,"

Rizzo Environmental Services, the largest trash hauler in Metro Detroit, serves 55 communities. The company started with a single snow-plowing contract in Hamtramck 15 years ago, the Detroit Free Press reported. By under-bidding its competition, Rizzo was able to more than double its size since 2011, when the company had 20 municipal trash hauling contracts. Its current 55 contracts include Detroit.

Sources told the Free Press that Rizzo executives are cooperating with the FBI, which has warned more people may be charged as the investigation progresses.

Both Freitas and Reynolds have been charged in what investigators with the FBI’s Detroit Area Corruption Task Force have described as an ongoing and long-running investigation into systemic corruption in multiple municipalities in southeast Michigan, but primarily Macomb County.

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