Ex-Romulus Mayor Burcroff sentenced to four months of home confinement

On April 4, former Romulus Mayor LeRoy Burcroff, 59, of Romulus, was sentenced to three years probation with four months home confinement following pleading guilty on Aug. 25, 2022 to wire fraud.
He had pled guilty to using $4,500 in campaign funds to help cover his daughter’s wedding at the Belleville Yacht Club which involved a payment to the yacht club from a Comerica Bank checking account entitled Committee to Elect LeRoy D. Burcroff.
He never admitted during his plea hearing to using more than $15,000 in campaign money for personal reasons, which is what he was charged with.
His sentence allows him to go to work and church during his home confinement.
The sentencing was by U.S. District Judge Denise Paige Hood, who could have sentenced him to a fine and/or up to 20 years in prison.
Since his plea, the sentencing hearing had been adjourned 13 times.
The sentence was announced in a news release issued by U. S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison.
Ison was joined in the announcement by Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Burcroff was elected mayor of the City of Romulus in 2014. As part of his election efforts, Burcroff established a committee to elect (CTE) fund entitled, “Committee to Elect LeRoy D. Burcroff.”
According to court documents, over the next two-and-a-half years, Burcroff defrauded donors to his CTE account by using these campaign funds for his personal benefit rather than for his election. For example, in November 2017, Burcroff spent over $3,500 of his campaign donors’ money to pay for his daughter’s wedding.
Burcroff spent the CTE money on a church fee, a banquet room rental, flowers, and the wedding bar tab. In 2017 and 2018, Burcroff used CTE funds to pay over $11,600 in dues and expenses to the Belleville Yacht Club which he used for his personal benefit.
On multiple occasions, Burcroff overpaid his yacht club dues using his campaign account, which resulted in the yacht club issuing a refund, which Burcroff deposited in his personal bank account, the news release said.
In 2018, Burcroff made a $1,000 donation of campaign funds to a trade industry, the Power Transmission Distributors Association, with the hope that he would receive a promotion at his private sector job. In 2019, Burcroff spent over $4,000 of campaign funds on a personal vacation to Florida with friends. The friends paid for their half and he put their money in his person account.
United States Attorney Ison said, “Trust in our state’s campaign finance system is a critical component of a healthy representative democracy. Mr. Burcroff’s conviction and sentence underscores our commitment to ensuring that the citizens of the Eastern District are represented by public officials who have integrity and are seeking office not for their self-interest, but for the good of the people they are elected to represent.”
“The citizens of Michigan demand and deserve utmost trust and integrity in our campaign finance system,” said Special Agent in Charge Cheyvoryea Gibson of the FBI in Michigan. “The former Mayor’s actions severely undermined the confidence of those who bestowed trust and faith in him and his office. The FBI and law enforcement partners are fully dedicated to fighting public corruption by investigating and exposing corrupt officials whose greed erodes the public’s trust in the government. We will not tolerate misconduct and will do everything we can to ensure justice is served.”
The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit Area Corruption Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eaton P. Brown.
“The residents of Romulus, Michigan, put their trust in defendant LeRoy Burcroff. Those who supported the defendant with their wallet and their vote likely never expected this aspiring politician to spend their hard-earned money on a family wedding, a Florida vacation with friends or a yacht club membership,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brown wrote in a sentencing memo that urged the judge to lock Burcroff up.
“Sadly, over a period of over four years, the defendant made a mockery of the city’s slogan ‘’ the ‘Home of Opportunity’ – by stealing thousands of dollars in campaign donations to enhance his lifestyle.”
Brown added: “The defendants deceit and dishonesty must be punished.” Federal prosecutors had requested that Burcroff be locked up for 14 months.
In November 2023, a new law took effect allowing for a reduction in federal sentencing guidelines for first-time offenders, like Burcroff, with no criminal history.
It allowed his sentencing guidelines to drop from 8 to 14 months in prison to just 4 to 10 months behind bars. But he was sentenced to no time behind bars.
Burcroff spoke for 10 minutes before Judge Hood pronounced her sentence. He said, “I let down my God, let down my family and the city that I love,” he said. He quoted a Bible verse and told the judge, “Your honor, I’m sorry. I sinned. I believe in redemption. I believe in redemption of sinners.”
In 2020, after WXYZ broke details about Burcroff’s campaign scheme, Burcroff reimbursed his campaign $35,000.