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Subscribe to RSSRay Nagin has been indicted on 21 counts of corruption. NewsNation's Tamron Hall reports.
NEW ORLEANS -- 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.
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.
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 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 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."
Enrique De La Osa / Reuters file
Ray Nagin, then mayor of New Orleans, in October 2009.
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.
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.
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.
Leave a Comment:
This is like CHOCO CRIME, whih is what you get from a CHOCO CITY!! Two things to remember:
1. God loves a working man
2. Don't trust whitey.
Because...it's a chocolate city, right Ray?
Folks, i know some of you may not agree with me, but i feel thugs,drugs and illegals are what has screwed up this country, besides our corrupt politicians.
i have started a petition to force the federal government to act.
to force obama's hand on the issue
obama must start enforcing the laws on marijuana and illegal immigration !!
please go here to sign the petition.... http:// www. wh.gov/Esqw
Ahhh! Good ol' NOLA corruption.
I guess C. Ray get's a new house out of the deal. Let's just hope it's the BIG HOUSE!
I can now see why he wanted the federal goverment to get off their a____'s and send help for Katrina. He needed money and favors. Any one who lives in a city below river and sea level should not complan when they get flooded. Get out and let the sea have the place. If this had happened somewhere else, the government would have relocated everyone and bull dozed the town down. The government wasted a lot of money (most of it embezzeled) on a city that will be under water again sometime.
Ambition and avarice is always the motive of the powerful. The wealth which our corrupt leaders, politicians and beauracrats acquiring through fraud is creating so much distance between them and the masses that there is nothing common left between them and us any more...A nation which has nothing in common has no right to exist. Rampant corruption which is prevailing in our government would be fatal and would collapse our nation like a deck of cards. Any nation which is ruled by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats would eventually would be destroyed. Virtuless politicians and bureaucrats always brings disorder and disgrace to their state. When powerful gives a damn about laws they bring disaster to their state. Our powerful are amassing wealth like they would live forever and spend money like they would die tomorrow. They dine in the best restaurants while most of us could not afford one decent meal a day. Our greedy and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats believes in the old Russian prover," Christ himself would steal if his hands were not tied to the cross."
Can't we trade Obobo for those hostages in Algiers - get him off this land? We need to consider all options. Let him use his horses ass smooth tongue to preach to the enemy - they will only put up with so much - not near as tolerant as the American people.
What does your comment have to do with this story, S Allison? Yes, Ray Nagin and president Obama are both black but they are two different people.
It WAS Bush's fault! If he had reacted faster, Nagin wouldn't have had to lie, cheat and steal! Of course it's not all Bush's fault, its those Tea Baggers fault too! And, and, and Boehner and Cantor too!!
(Did I get them all Feisty?)
Get ready because Hurricane Sandy will be the same way. Insurance adjusters calculated the cost to clean up the Sandy problem at 20 billion, politicians estimated 60 billion, who would you trust and who really has the experience to figure this out. This is how disaters work, as Rahm Emmaula would probably say never let a good disaster go to waste. Milk the taxpayers for those states who have huge deficits to help pay their other bills.
Your right about that, creeps all over America...when and why did we lose our values. Our officials are conducting themselves no better than Hoffa or any gangster, just swindle or strong arm to get what you want and make nice donation to politicians and you AZZ is covered.
There are disasters everywhere.
And most of us pay premiums to live where we have to live.
I am tired of people who are mighty than thou, who live in deserts and bitch.
A crook is a crook, next to Washington DC New Orleans is the most corrupt city in America, is anybody surprised ?? do you really think that The Democrats or The Republicans are any less corrupt ?? wake up partisan idiots we are all surfs and just meat to these scoundrels.
Us vs Them is not a partisan issue anymore, both parties are just empty-suit corporate whores, the real battle unless you are part of the coddled 3% richest Americans, neither party gives a Rat's rear about any of us except during the elections. If Obama is a socialist then I am Donald Trump, If the GOP is for small govt the I am Jack Welch.
Criminy, you read the story and seems like everyone got indicted except the secretary's and the dog catcher. Hey, why did you guys omit the -D after his name? If it had been a Republican, you know darn well that -R would have been right there! I am surprised that these are Federal indictments. Obviously, Eric Holder must not have been looking. We'll see what kind of convictions come, if any.
Gboy time for your straight jacket
Oh the shame! When he was the head of Cox Communications, he was my boss. I worked in the production studio back then. I thought that he was a cool boss even though he only visited us during Christmas. We were like the step children of the company, but I always liked Ray. This is sad.
You must be a sick woman!
What makes me a sick woman, Gunsmoke?
If he was your boss and you felt like you were treated like a step-child yet liked him even if he visited you on Christmas and now you're sad because he fleeced so many? THEN YES YOU ARE A SICK WOMAN.
If only George had not caused that nasty storm, none of this would have happened.................... :)~
Hope he gets what he deserves.
I am glad he got cought! When I first saw him on tv during Katrina he gave me the creeps. I felt he was a con man and when I saw him wearing diamond rings on his pinky and ring finger on both hands that did it. He should not be considered as a roll model for children and teens to aspire to. Children of color need roll models but for goodness sake where are they? I assume his family...children are embarressed by this news, I at least hope they are and they learn a lesson in how not to be "the man".
Yet another empty suit low brow sidewinder on the take.
Im a firm believer that elected officials should receive the max sentences with no parole. NY is a disgrace. Joe Bruno was guilty by a jury of multiple counts of fraud and corruption as Ny Senate majotity leader. He has not served a day in jail for his felony crimes. The federal judge allowing this should be indicted as well and removed fromthe bench.
Nagin's "chocolate" city caught up with him this time.
GOOD.
DAMN GOOD.
if obozo had a brother he would look like nagin
everyone in N.O. knew this guy was dirty long before Katrina.
Amazing how long it takes to catch up to these guys....
The only thing that would be an interesting story was if
the media could find someone in New Orleans who WASN'T dirty.
Now that would be news.....
race has nothing to do with it; it's in the water.
lol
:D
Nagin always was a thief, but those idiots down there think 'he's the man'. If there were no term limits, regardless of what he did, they would have continually elected him just because he is ........................................BLACK!
How did everyone know that he was always a thief? Where did you get this information? Do you know him personally?
I'm not defending him, I just want to know how you came across these "facts" you're posting.
I agree with Gunsmoke to a certain extent. Here in Houston, I voted for Anise Parker for mayor because I believed she was the only genuine candidate on the ticket. In the debates, her smile and answers were genuine while everyone else wore forced grins and recited talking points. However, I have to admit that all else being equal, I'd probably re-elect her only because she's gay.
I think Nagin was re-elected even after corruption charges started coming out. People who voted to re-elect him probably don't even realize that they're just reinforcing black stereotypes and racism.
Remember how this mayor slung mud (metaphorically) at Bush and Republicans even though Bush was there right away and FEMA etc was there withing days? And remember how it was cast as if the response was slow and Republicans didn't care even though the federal government did not have jurisdiction where New Orleans and Louisiana could have done more for themselves? And remember how after Sandy there were areas weeks later that were still not getting aid? And now this guy is caught out for being corrupt. Maybe we should have the elections over -
No, Thomas I don't remember Bush and FEMA responding right away. Some of my family that lived through Katrina didn't remember that either.
I live in the area and President Bush and FEMA came in as soon as Nagin and Blanco quit fighting and crying over who was going to be in control. If they would have been good leaders the federal government would have been here immediately
Yeah Cintra is right. The national guard was dispatched days prior and FEMA was ordered to prepare days prior. Bush didn't go right away because he would tie up a lot of resources with his security.
When they're done raking Louisiana over the coals,
can someone find me ONE person in the entire state
of Alabama that isn't on the take?
Alabama is so corrupt, even folks in New Orleans are appalled....
hahahahaha
"And that's what I like about the soooouth!"
If you have specifics...proof....evidence, contact the Feds or the AL Atty General.
That's news to me. I lived my whole life in Mobile and never had a problem with corruption ever. Nor have I ever heard of any. Maybe you'd like to elaborate... Or maybe you're just a no nothing douche
"Thanks Ray for bringing in the black vote in New Orleans, The election's over I don't need you no mo!!!! Ha Ha!!!!"
Barack Obama