Updated 9/13/24 with a comment from Billy Cole.

by P.D. Lesko

Supreme Felons, Inc. is led by felon Billy Cole, a murderer. Bryan Foley, a bank robber, has self-identified as the “managing director” and “vice president,” but it is Cole’s signature on the incorporation documents, on the contract with Washtenaw County and on every request for funds from the County’s Community Priority Fund. In Aug. 2023, the Ann Arbor Independent reported that non-profit Supreme Felons, Inc. had its non-profit status revoked on May 15, 2023 due to the organization’s failure to file federal income tax returns for three consecutive years. IRS records once again show that Supreme Felons, Inc. did not file its form 990 for its 2023 fiscal year which ended in December of 2023. The tax return was due May 15, 2023.

This IRS revocation of Supreme Felons, Inc. non-profit status put the group in violation of its contract with Washtenaw County that governed the dispersal of a two-year, $1.2 million grant in ARPA funds awarded by the County Commissioners in July 2022. Billy Cole is once again in violation of the County contract he signed. Supreme Felons Inc. must abide by all State and Federal laws, including tax laws.

The failure to file a form 990 can result in a maximum penalty of $10,000, or 5 percent of the organization’s gross receipts, whichever is less.

The County’s Community Priority Fund was overseen by former DEI Dept. Racial Equity Officer II, Alize Asberry Payne. On Aug. 16, 2024, Asberry Payne resigned after the A2Indy published a series of articles that revealed she had charged $115,000 to her County-provided credit card, including thousands of dollars for Uber and Lyft rides, Uber Eats, limo rides, luxury hotel rooms, and international travel (including travel to a spa in Cancun). The newspaper also revealed that Asberry Payne had falsified her educational credentials and work history when applying for the County administrative job. Public records also showed that, while interviewing for the County job, Alize Asberry (as she was known in California) was the subject of a California arrest warrant involving financial crimes.

In an email, the newspaper asked Billy Cole to comment on his non-profit’s missing federal income tax return. Cole said, “Supreme Felons Inc. 2023 Form 990 is on an approved Internal Revenue Service extension and will be filed accordingly by the extension due date by an independent tax preparer.”

The newspaper also asked County Administrator Greg Dill about the contractor’s missing tax return, which puts Supreme Felons, Inc. in violation of the contract between the County and Supreme Felons, Inc. which requires the group to adhere to all state and federal laws, including tax laws.

County Administrator Greg Dill was also asked how Supreme Felons, Inc. continued to submit Requests for Advances of Funds to the Community Priority Fund and be paid, when Cole’s failure to file means the Supreme Felons, Inc. tax status is delinquent.

The Ann Arbor Independent filed a FOIA request with the County for copies of audits submitted by Supreme Felons for each year the group has been a County contractor and received public money. The FOIA also requested copies of annual budgets submitted to the County by Supreme Felons, Inc. Because Supreme Felons, Inc. is an agent of the County and receives the majority of its funding from a public body (Washtenaw County), the non-profit’s records are subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. The newspaper submitted a FOIA for a variety of financial records directly to Supreme Felons, Inc.’s president Billy Cole.

A request for an advance of the $1.2 million in ARPA funds from the County’s Community priority Fund signed by Billy Cole in Jan. 2023 shows that Cole budgeted to collect $20,360 to pay a Financial Manager, as well as $5,270 to purchase bookkeeping and timekeeping software. The Jan. 2023 request for funds ($29,187) for Supreme Felons, Inc. to the County’s DEI Dept. (which controls the Community Priority Fund) was allegedly prepared by a woman named Alise Boyd. Boyd’s website identifies her as the CEO & Business Administrator for a company called ABC Accounting and Business Consulting Services. Boyd is also a real estate agent.

As of 2021, Boyd’s accounting firm was listed in State records as “Not in Good Standing.” A call to the ABC office resulted in a message that ABC is no longer in business.

Billy Cole’s June 2023 request for an advance of funds ($30,734) saw the amount budgeted for a Financial Manager reduced to $11,875, and the addition of a $1,700 payment for tax preparation. It’s unclear where the money for tax preparation went, as the group’s 2023 tax return was due in May 2023, and never submitted.

In July 2022, the year Supreme Felons, Inc. was awarded $1.2 million in ARPA funds by the County, the group filed a 990-N postcard in which it was claimed Supreme Felons, Inc. had total gross income of less than $50,000. County records show that Billy Cole signed an agreement in which it was stipulated the ARPA funds would be dispersed beginning in Jan. 2023. The document was also signed by County Administrator Greg Dill.

County records show that between Feb.-Dec. 2023, Supreme Felons asked the County to disperse 13 payments that totalled $523,631. Of that amount, 15.7 percent ($82,236) went to pay Billy Cole, according to County records released to the newspaper. The April 2022 grant application submitted by Cole and Alan K. Fuqua to the County for the $1.2 million grant included a budget that showed Cole’s pay would be $40,000 per year.

In Dec. 2023, Billy Cole requested three payments from the County totalling $130,184. No payment was dispersed to Supreme Felons, Inc. in May 2023, after the A2Indy reported the IRS had revoked the non-profit status of Supreme Felons.

The award of $1.2 million in public money to a pair of felons, one of whom is a murderer and the other of whom (Alan K. Fuqua) is a registered sex offender, triggered vocal opposition from County residents, elected officials and others. Alize Asberry Payne was among the four County employees who recommended that the $1.2 million be awarded to the felons, whose grant application the County Administrator admitted was fraudulent. The Michigan Republican Party targeted County Commissioner Sue Shink with postcards that informed voters she had voted to give a murderer and a sex offender public money in order to work with children in schools. Shink ran for the State Senate the year she voted to hand Supreme Felons, Inc. $1.2 million to “save lives.”

Billy Cole was sentenced to life plus 40 years by a Washtenaw County judge for the murder of Mark D. Simpson. Simpson had graduated from EMU but was working the night shift at the Stop ‘N Go store at 1512 Washtenaw Ave., because he was finding it difficult to land a job in his academic field. In the early morning hours, Simpson was bound, gagged and executed. Billy Cole fired three shots at Simpson: one each to the back of the head, face and body. The take from the robbery was $169 in cash; Simpson had refused to open the store’s safe.

Cole executed Mark Simpson because, it came out during Cole’s trial, that Cole and his accomplice were concerned that Simpson would have been able to identify them to police.