Former Oakley police chief sold guns to wealthy metro Detroiters for personal gain
Robert J. Reznick, the former police chief of the Village of Oakley, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of wire fraud and filing a false income tax return for 2012.
Reznick was the center of a bizarre scheme to create a self-funded police department by soliciting donations from wealthy or otherwise prominent metro Detroiters in exchange for allowing them to be unpaid "reserve officers" — what he called a "dream team," according to a 2015 Metro Times cover story. Reznick then used his position as police chief to purchase discounted weapons, which he sold to his "reserve officers" tax-free for his own personal gain, according to prosecutors.
Though Reznick has fought to keep the list of his reserve officers a secret, a list of applicants reveals a who's who of metro Detroit movers and shakers, including the likes of Kid Rock, Quicken Loans VP Adam Speck, Rock Ventures exec Matthew Cullen, Former Detroit Lion Jason Fox, Bacco Ristorante owner Luciano Delsignore, and the late Marvin Yagoda, the former proprietor of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.
None of the 145 applicants live anywhere near the small Saginaw County town.
Read more: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2019/03/27/former-oakley-police-chief-at-center-of-bizarre-reserve-officers-plot-pleads-guilty-to-wire-and-tax-fraud
Reznick failed to report over $87,000 in income to the IRS.