Last week we reported on two more former Dearborn Building and Safety employees being charged with crimes connected to their jobs (click here for that story). Now one of the former employees facing misdemeanor fraud charges is speaking out, telling the Dearborn Times Herald that he is being singled out as a scapegoat and “has nothing to hide”.

Charged wtih fraud, former Dearborn Building & Safety employee Andrew Pizzino says he did nothing wrong and is being 'singled out.'

Andrew Pizzino of Dearborn, charged with two misdemeanor counts of fraud and two misdemeanor counts of ethics violations of the city charter, tells Times-Herald writer J. Patrick Pepper that he did not commit a crime. Rather, he tells the paper he believes that he is being made a scapegoat for a practice common among his colleagues.

“You ever hear of the ethics board?” Pizzino says in the Times-Herald article. “Tell them to check everybody in the Building and Safety Department (to) see how many went to the ethics board for the purchases of houses. I think I’m being singled out for some reason.”

According to Pizzino, all building inspectors are required to report any property purchases they are considering in Dearborn so the Board of Ethics can review the sale for any conflicts of interest or improprieties. The appointed Board of Ethics committee renders advisory opinions to city officers and employees and conducts investigations into possible ethics violations, according to the city charter.

“These people were selling their house, they wanted a certain amount and I gave it to them,” Pizzino tells the Times-Herald. “(Investigators) are trying to say I did something ethically wrong.”

The fraud charges are connected to the sale of homes at 2645 Chestnut and 22858 Beech. Wayne County land records show that Pizzino purchased the Chestnut home in October 2002 for $90,000 and then sold it 11 months later for $143,400. The home on Beech was purchased in January 2004 for $100,000 and sold in June 2005 for $203,000, according to Wayne County records.

Pizzino did not tell the Times Herald whether he filed the proper reports with the city for the sale of the two homes in question.

For complete Times Herald story, click here.