The Dark Money Pipeline — Save Detroit Jobs to City Hall

Summary

A single dark money entity — Save Detroit Jobs — formed by the law firm Dykema Gossett PLLC (Entity 802002459) — funded both:

1. The council member who sits on a convicted felon’s school board (Latisha Johnson → PCA Board Secretary)
2. The Mayor of Detroit (Mary Sheffield, via Detroit Next PAC)

The Mayor then appointed the Police Chief (Todd Bettison) — who himself sits on a charter school board (DPSA) while under OIG investigation for using police authority to protect the Mayor’s personal reputation.

Every link below is sourced to public records.

The Pipeline

DYKEMA GOSSETT PLLC (Lansing, 201 Townsend St Suite 900)
    │ formed (LARA Entity 802002459)
    │ entity email: compliance@dykema.com
    ▼
SAVE DETROIT JOBS
    │ operated under 3 names:
    │   Save Detroit Jobs (2016)
    │   Impact Detroit (2018)
    │   Detroit Leaders (2021)
    │ all 3 officers at same address: 13560 E. McNichols
    │
    ├──── funded Latisha Johnson campaign vs Steve Elrick (2021)
    │     Johnson won → PCA Board Secretary
    │     PCA Board = Banks's charter school
    │
    └──── $84,500 → DETROIT NEXT PAC (2025)
                       │
                       ├── also received:
                       │   $151,000 ← 5Plus1 (Horace Sheffield III)
                       │    $50,000 ← Michigan Energy First (DTE-linked)
                       │    $45,000 ← Michigan Vindicated (dark money)
                       │    $44,000 ← Matthew Moroun (Ambassador Bridge)
                       │    $20,000 ← Health Alliance Plan PAC
                       │
                       └──→ $212,600+ on pro-Sheffield ads
                            billboards, mailers, digital
                            │
                            ▼
                      MAYOR MARY SHEFFIELD
                            │ appointed (Jan 2026)
                            ▼
                      CHIEF TODD BETTISON
                       │              │
                  DPD Chief     DPSA Board Secretary
                       │        (charter school)
                       │
                  Under OIG investigation (Sep 2026)
                  for protecting Sheffield's reputation
                  FBI took over "public corruption side"

5Plus1 — The Father’s Vehicle

5Plus1 is a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit — a “dark money” group that does not disclose its donors. It provided $151,000 (44% of total funding) to Detroit Next PAC before Sheffield’s 2025 mayoral primary.

• Formed by Scott Holiday
• Operated from same address as DABO (Detroit Association of Black Organizations), 12048 Grand River Ave, Detroit
• Advised by Rev. Horace Sheffield III — Mayor Sheffield’s father
• Sheffield’s father was listed as an incorporator on a TV ad order; his name was removed after BridgeDetroit contacted him
• Detroit Next PAC paid $15,000 to Ecumenical Ministers Alliance (Sheffield III = chair)

When asked about 5Plus1 and Detroit Next PAC, Sheffield said:

“I think that’s information that you all would have to look into.”

Source: BridgeDetroit, M.L. Elrick / Free Press

Save Detroit Jobs — Dual Use

The same Dykema-formed entity funded both sides of the network:

The entity that put a council member on Banks’s school board also funded the Mayor who appointed the Police Chief.

Source: TransparencyUSA, BridgeDetroit, LARA Entity 802002459

The Structural Parallel

Two public officials sit on charter school boards while exercising public authority:

Both use official resources for board business:

• Miller: judicial authority over cases in the same community Banks’s schools serve
• Bettison: official city email (bettisont239@detroitmi.gov) for DPSA board correspondence

Source: LARA Entity 900072324 (PCA), LARA Entity 800934916 (DPSA), CBS Detroit, JTC/AGC filings

The DPD Towing Connection

Bettison’s DPD is the same department where towing corruption has been documented at every level:

The officer in charge of investigating police misconduct (Kennedy) was himself taking bribes from towing companies. This was happening while Bettison was still in the DPD (27-year career, left 2021 for Deputy Mayor).

Source: Deadline Detroit, Detroit News, DOJ press releases

The Bettison-Sheffield Protection Pattern

Bettison says the call was “personal” and the phone seizure was “unrelated.” The OIG investigation is ongoing.

The Operational Hub — Carol Banks

The dark money pipeline has a human operator: Carol Banks.

Carol Banks simultaneously holds or held these roles:

The same person who ran the endorsement operation that elected Sheffield (Mayor) and endorsed Miller (PCA Board President) also operated the dark money entity that put Johnson (PCA Board Secretary) on the council — and received direct payments from it.

Save Detroit Jobs → Carol Banks → Political Outcomes

1. 2016: Carol Banks receives $18,000+ from Save Detroit Jobs to fight Prop A. Benson’s staff also paid.
2. 2021: Save Detroit Jobs renames to “Detroit Leaders.” Sends mailers supporting Latisha Johnson against Steve Elrick in District 4. Carol Banks has Johnson campaign sign in her yard. Johnson wins → PCA Board Secretary.
3. 2025: Eastside Slate (Carol Banks, Vice Chair) endorses Mary Sheffield for Mayor. Detroit Next PAC (funded by Save Detroit Jobs $84,500 + 5Plus1 $151,000) runs $212,600+ in pro-Sheffield ads. Sheffield wins → appoints Bettison.

Every political outcome that benefits Brian Banks’s charter school network passes through Carol Banks’s operational layer.

The FBI Knew

• Aug 25, 2021: FBI raided Carol Banks’s East English Village home
• Aug 25, 2021: FBI raided Benson’s home and office, City Hall
• Aug 25, 2021: FBI raided Ayers’s home, Silva’s home
• FBI was examining “whether the city officials personally benefited from campaign contributions or donations to 501(c)(4) nonprofits like Eastside Slate and another group she’s affiliated with, Save Detroit Jobs” (Deadline Detroit)
• Jan 2025: Investigation closed without charges (Benson, Ayers, Banks, Silva)

The FBI investigated the exact pathway documented here — Save Detroit Jobs and Eastside Slate as vehicles for political corruption — and closed the case. The question is whether the closure considered the downstream effects: Johnson on PCA Board, Sheffield appointing Bettison, Miller endorsed by the same operation.

Carol Banks vs. Brian Banks

Are they related? Both “Banks” in Detroit politics. Both connected to the same institutional network:

• Carol Banks: DPS Board → Eastside Slate → Save Detroit Jobs → Johnson/Sheffield/Miller
• Brian Banks: State House (8 felonies) → State Senate campaign → PCA charter school → convicted

Carol Banks ran the DPS board. Brian Banks’s PCA was later authorized by DPSCD (the successor to DPS). The name coincidence and network overlap warrant further investigation.

Source: Deadline Detroit, Free Press, Metro Times, Deadline Detroit

The McCastle Thread

Gloria McCastle — a shared political operative — was paid by five committees that span the network:

One operative connects Banks, Yancey, Gay-Dagnogo, and Knezek through direct campaign payments.

Source: TransparencyUSA — Gloria McCastle

Banks for Senate — Full Payee List

Every major payee from Banks’s Senate campaign is now identified:

A convicted federal drug money launderer received $7,350 from a state Senate campaign.

Source: TransparencyUSA — Brian Banks for Senate

Verification

Every claim in this analysis is sourced to:

• LARA corporate filings (entities, officers, addresses)
• TransparencyUSA campaign finance records
• BridgeDetroit investigative journalism
• Detroit Free Press / M.L. Elrick reporting
• CBS Detroit / BridgeDetroit / Fox 2 (Bettison OIG coverage)
• Deadline Detroit (Operation Northern Hook DPD charges)
• Detroit OIG debarment records and investigative reports
• Federal court records (PACER, CourtListener)

The data is in the git repository. Clone it. Verify it. Every source is cited.

Analysis submitted for agency determination. Not legal advice. Not legal findings.