An attorney for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick denied Wednesday that Kilpatrick ever took bribes or extorted cash from Karl Kado, a businessman who held lucrative contracts at the Cobo Center.

"There were never any cash payments," said Detroit attorney James C. Thomas. Kilpatrick "didn't receive any bribes from Kado; nor did he extort Kado."

The Detroit News reported Wednesday that Kado -- who is to be sentenced today for filing false income tax returns -- testified in an August deposition in a civil lawsuit that he made illegal cash payments to both Kilpatrick, who was then mayor, and his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick.

Kado denied the payments were bribes, describing himself as a victim of extortion.

Kado gave no details about the alleged payments, but a person familiar with an ongoing criminal investigation told The News in February that Kado told investigators he paid Kwame Kilpatrick close to $100,000 and paid his father close to $300,000.

Two former Cobo directors who pleaded guilty to felony charges as part of a long-running FBI investigation of City Hall corruption, Lou Pavledes and Glenn Blanton, admitted in their plea agreements they received illegal payments from Kado.

Thomas said the allegations against the former mayor are false and said he does not know why Kado would make up the story.