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Yet Another New Orleans Pol. Brought Up on Corruption Charges

Jan. 18, 2013 3:48pm Becket Adams

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Indicted on Bribery, Fraud

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. (Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images).

NEW ORLEANS (TheBlaze/AP) — Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted Friday on charges that he used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips, and gratuities from contractors while the city was struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

The charges against Nagin are the outgrowth of a City Hall corruption investigation that already has resulted in guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen and a prison sentence for a former city vendor.

The federal indictment accuses Nagin of accepting more than $160,000 in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of a local businessman who secured millions of dollars in city contract work after the 2005 hurricane. The businessman, Frank Fradella, pleaded guilty in June to bribery conspiracy and securities-fraud charges and has been cooperating with federal authorities.

September 1, 2005—Stranded survivors wait in the Superdome, New Orleans. (Getty Images).

Nagin, 56, also is charged with accepting at least $60,000 in payoffs from another businessman, Rodney Williams, for his help in securing city contracts for architectural, engineering and management services work. Williams, who was president of Three Fold Consultants LLC, pleaded guilty Dec. 5 to a conspiracy charge.

The indictment also accuses Nagin of getting free private jet and limousine services to New York from an unidentified businessman. Nagin is accused of agreeing to wave tax penalties that the businessman owed to the city on a delinquent tax bill in 2006.

In 2010, Greg Meffert, a former technology official and deputy mayor under Nagin, pleaded guilty to charges he took bribes and kickbacks in exchange for steering city contracts to businessman Mark St. Pierre. Anthony Jones, who served as the city’s chief technology officer in Nagin’s administration, also pleaded guilty to taking payoffs.

Meffert cooperated with the government in its case against St. Pierre, who was convicted in May 2011 of charges that include conspiracy, bribery and money laundering.

New Orleans mayor C. Ray Nagin testifies on Capitol Hill on September 23, 2008 in Washington, DC. Mayor Nagin spoke about his city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina as well as its recent experience with hurricanes Gustav and Ike. (September 23, 2008, Getty Images North America).

Nagin, a former cable television executive, was a political novice before being elected to his first term as mayor in 2002, buoyed by strong support from white voters. He cast himself a “reform-minded progressive” as he snubbed fellow Democrat Kathleen Blanco and endorsed Republican Bobby Jindal’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2003. But don’t be fooled, he still ran as and is a registered Democrat.

Katrina elevated Nagin to the national stage, where he gained a reputation for colorful and sometimes cringe-inducing rhetoric.

During a radio interview broadcast in the storm’s early aftermath, he angrily pleaded with federal officials to “get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.” In January 2006, he apologized for a Martin Luther King Day speech in which he predicted New Orleans would be a “chocolate city” and asserted that “God was mad at America.”

Strong support from black voters helped Nagin win re-election in 2006 despite widespread criticism of his post-Katrina leadership. But the glacial pace of rebuilding, a surge in violent crime and the budding City Hall corruption investigation chipped away at Nagin’s popularity during his second term.

Houses flooded by Hurricane Katrina. (Getty Images)

Nagin could not seek a third consecutive term because of term limits. Mitch Landrieu, who ran against Nagin in 2006, succeeded him in 2010.

Aaron Bennett, a businessman awaiting sentencing in a separate bribery case, told The Times-Picayune that he introduced Nagin to Fradella specifically to help the mayor get Home Depot granite installation work for a business that he and his sons founded. Fradella’s company received millions of dollars in city contracts for repair work at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and in the French Quarter after Katrina, the newspaper reported.

Some of the allegations in the indictment have been the subject of state ethics complaints. In April 2010, the Louisiana Board of Ethics charged Nagin with two possible violations of state ethics law.

PORT SULPHUR, LA – MAY 28: Kailah Smith, 18 months, sleeps on a moldy couch caused by rain leaks in her parents’ FEMA trailer just before the family moved out of the trailer to an apartment May 28, 2008 in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images).

One charge involves Nagin’s “use of a credit card and/or gifts” from St. Pierre and his technology firm, NetMethods, while the company was working for the city. NetMethods paid for Nagin and his family to travel to Jamaica in 2005 and to Hawaii in 2004, according to newspaper reports.

In the other charge, the Ethics Board says Stone Age LLC, the Nagin family’s business, was compensated for installation services provided to Home Depot while the home improvement retailer was negotiating tax breaks from the city.

Nagin has largely steered clear of the political arena since he left office. On his Twitter account, he describes his current occupations as author, public speaker, and “green energy entrepreneur.” He wrote a self-published memoir called “Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm.”

Nagin’s attorney, Robert Jenkins, didn’t immediately return cellphone calls seeking comment on the indictment.

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Featured images courtesy Getty Images.

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Comments (104)

spfoam1
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:35pm
Nagin let a lot of people die so he could point a finger of blame at President Bush. He belongs in Angola prison with chains between his ankles.

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- V-MindMeld
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:40pm
  Yep poor george unrightfully took the heat for that one,,,,,,,, so its like, why have a mayor and governor? dang democrats,,,,,never ever want to except responsibilty and always place the blame on someone else,,,,usually the closest republican,,,sounds like someone else we all know….
  
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- rs9
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:12pm
  Ray “school bus” Nagin democrat New Orleans
  
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- db321
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:12pm
  I remember watching Nagen lie throw his teeth, I’m just glad we don’t have anyone running our Country the way he ran New Orleans.
  
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- Live_Free_orDie
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 10:40pm
  I think orange jumps will bring out his eye color…just right for Bubba
  
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- dawgGoodie
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 10:51pm
  This is very direct and blunt language and makes very serious charges. But the implications of this comment is probably accurate.
  
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- Bluebonnet
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 12:07am
  There just has to be something added to the water in Louisiana. The Long family who control the state for years were about as crooked as it got, and that guy hiding thousands in his freezer. Many more little fish were caught and we all knew something was wrong with Nagin. But, he’s probably done no more than most of our D.C. politicians who went to office as an average person and years later leave office as millionaires. I can name a few off the top of the list. We get skrewed every day by them.
  
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- starman70
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 9:54am
  Just another DEMOCRAT who felt that it was OK to feed at the public trough and allow bribery and corruption. He is like the officials of most of the major American cities, they just haven’t been caught YET.
  
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- turkey13
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 12:08pm
  Hey – leave him alone. He was just following orders from Obama – spread the wealth and create jobs. Since he was just doing what Obama told him to do you can’t fault him. I’m sure if you check the four pages of PARDONS Obama has done to date you will find his name on one of them. You know if Eric Holders name is there Ray’s name is there also.
  
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V-MindMeld
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:32pm
Ya, this looser waisted no time getting his A*SS and his families out of there before the hurricane hit,,,,,and left everyone to fend for themselves,,,,,,,,,,,Nice guy huh?,,,,,,all cowards….

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- drs1969
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:16pm
  Givmint dependants expected a free ride out of town. They didn’t realize they had to take responsibility for themselves, never had to before!
  
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- Ohello
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 12:26am
  Just another chocolate criminal in the “Chocolate City”
  
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- ree758
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 12:20pm
  Never understood how people blamed Bush and not this guy for not being prepared for Katrina.Its just mind boggling
  
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- Brents Torts
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 1:13pm
  @REE758 That’s what the corrupt media wanted the sheeple to think.
  
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MAULEMALL
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:31pm
Chocklit town takin a bite outa crime…

nagen dont like black people!

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:30pm
This is typical of the entire ‘progressive’ culture that always is looking for taxpayer funding to fix their greedily engineered messes. The entire ghetto/hood/projects is a testament to profiteering and corruption that breeds failure for the community.

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- Mil Mom
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 11:48pm
  @Ghandi was a Republican
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:30pm
  
  This is typical of the entire ‘progressive’ culture that always is looking for taxpayer funding to fix their greedily engineered messes. The entire ghetto/hood/projects is a testament to profiteering and corruption that breeds failure for the community
  ***
  Are you talking about New Orleans or Chicago? Oh well! Makes no difference just check out the blue voter map and in any of the major cities there you could put their name in your statement and it’d be true!
  
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CloudNine
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:29pm
All I did was smile when I read this. Not surprising at all!

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- CatB
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:36pm
  Agree .. I hope they stick it to Mr. Chocolate City good … (that is not racist that is what HE said he was going to rebuild N.O. as mentioned above) .
  
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- savagenatn
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 4:01am
  oh no! I’m certain these charges are completely racially motivated. I’m sure holder will send some of his goons to chocolate city to squash these charges
  
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elosogrande
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:28pm
Add your comments

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elosogrande
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:28pm
Gee! Maybe “Brownie” didn’t do such a bad job after all. Maybe this lying weasel of a Democrat mayor was just one of many lying, Democrat weasels who kept things from getting done.

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powedj
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:24pm
It’s George Bush’s fault !!!.

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- gyro
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:26pm
  this
  
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MDECKER
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:12pm
This man is the typical, Liberal Democrat thug, who the ignorant entitled keep voting into public office all over the country.

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- cosette
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:25pm
  Isn’t this the imbecile who called New Orleans a “chocolate” town and promised to keep it that way. Of course he is. Which explains why he was elected in the first place. You need be nothing more than black and liberal. That’s it, no other standards must be met. As Mayor of D.C. Marion Barry was even convicted and did time yet he now sits on the D.C. city council. Rangle is another incompetent, corrupt black politician and he was just reelected. Again…. black and liberal. Nuf’ said.
  
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ssbstspd
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:11pm
yew new orleans has been corrupt for years. I heard even this landreaiu guy is shady to the bone ( another dem). I wonder what eventually happened to his son after his dwi this summer ? When the son was leaving the police station you can hear him cursing and giving the middle finger to the local news and media that where awaiting his departure.

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noslave
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:09pm
THIS IS JUST A RACIAL LYNCHING???can already hear al shapton,etc.??,somebodys bound to kick their cage again??also it must be open season on only democrats?? my heart goes out to the democratic party AGAIN?? of course im only kidding,peronally when thei caught stealing from taxpayers who are already hurting?they should cut their hands off like obamas pals the toel-heads??

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SocialistSlayer
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:07pm
Surprise Surprise —- New Orleans Finest Chocolate going to jail ! There is corruption at every level in the United States from the Communist President all the way down to the local dog catchers !

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- hatchetjob
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:23pm
  I seriously doubt that he’s going to jail. He is coated in teflon like the all the others who have not been held accountable.
  
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- drs1969
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:19pm
  La politicians have always been corrupt, like Chicago.
  
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Nevermind
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:06pm
If true he shoudl be put under the jail!! Unreal. Politicians abuse power over and over and this is no different.

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GoodStuff
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:05pm
Schoolbus Nagin? Chocolate City Nagin?

Oh, big surprise there.

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SocialismSuxEveryday
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:04pm
I’m sure this was Bush’s fault. Along with Fast and Furious

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Cavallo
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:04pm
He must have been snarky about Mooooochelle. Nadin is one of Holder’s people and would normally get a pass because of that.

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DZ-015
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:03pm
Nagin needs a busman’s holiday in a non country club Club Fed.

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BastiatsLaw
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:01pm
He’ll claim it was Bush’s fault! Jackwagon!

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@leftfighter
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:01pm
Keep Chocolate City chocolate, Ray.

…and if that wasn’t funny enough, insert prison context here.

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- mrunner
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:11pm
  Beat me to it. I was going to say his comment was “Although I will miss my chocolate city, my efforts have availed me of an opportunity to live in a secure gated community. I have yet to access the facility, but from what I understand they have an internal restaurant serving 3 meals daily as well as exercise facilites. People I know who live there have told me it is my type of community. I will fit right in and have friends up the arse.”
  
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moreteaplease
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:00pm
Wow, he has all of the qualifications needed to serve on Obama’s cabinet.

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LovinUSA
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:59pm
Amazing what greed will do to you…..

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GoodCook
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:58pm
No surprise here after all he is a radical Democrat. Now how the bribary charges levied against Harry Reid hmmmmmm …………..

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BlackCrow
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:55pm
Surprise, surprise, surprise.

(sarcasm font)

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Fubared
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:55pm
Still Chocolate city Ray?

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- trackmaster
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 8:00am
  Unfortunately, it is too chocolate. For a short while after Katrina when the city was mostly vanilla crime was low and the city was relatively safe. In time the chocolates returned, bringing with them crime and ignorance.
  
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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:55pm
Heard this on Rush, during lunch. Couldn’t have happened to a better person. I hope they lock him up until he is 75.

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- stopprintn
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:03pm
  He,s a democrat. More likely a big new house next door to john corzine.
  
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- Zipit
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 11:46pm
  He’ll probably replace Wasserman Schultz, as head of the DNC!
  
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