Ex-new Orleans mayor indicted on bribery charge
Accused of using job for profit amid Katrina cleanup
NEW ORLEANS, LA. — 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 Frank Fradella, a local businessman who secured millions of dollars in city contract work after the 2005 hurricane. Fradella pleaded guilty in June to bribery, conspiracy and securities-fraud charges and has been co-operating with federal authorities.
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 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.
Nagin, a former cable television executive, was a political novice before being elected to his first term as mayor in 2002.
He cast himself as a reformminded progressive who wasn’t bound by party affiliations, as he snubbed fellow Democrat Kathleen Blanco and endorsed Republican Bobby Jindal’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2003.
Katrina elevated Nagin to the national stage, where he gained a reputation for colourful and sometimes cringe-inducing rhetoric.