Ares
12th February 2014, 05:00 PM
Former New Orleans mayor found GUILTY on 20 out of 21 counts of corruption after he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes
Ray Nagin was found guilty on 20 different counts and each carries anywhere between a 3-year or 20-year sentence
Nagin, a Democrat, was the mayor of New Orleans from 2002 to 2010
Saw the city through reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina in 2005
Was charged with accepting bribes like lavish trips and concrete for his family's construction business in exchange for securing city contracts
The former mayor of New Orleans has been found guilty on 20 of the 21 federal corruption counts he faced including taking bribes and free trips from contractors in exchange for securing city contracts.
The federal jury alleged that Ray Nagin accepted the bribes after helping the private companies win million-dollar projects.
Nagin is best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans and plunging the city into chaos.
The corruption that he was charged with occurred both before and after the devastating hurricane in August 2005.
The Democratic mayor who led the city from 2002 to 2010 was indicted in January 2013 on charges he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and truckloads of free granite in the illegal dealings.
He also was charged with accepting thousands of dollars in payoffs from another businessman for his help in securing city contracts.
Before the verdict was read, Nagin said outside the courtroom that he's 'been at peace with this for a long time. I'm good.'
Nagin testified that key witnesses lied and prosecutors misinterpreted evidence including emails, checks and pages from his appointment calendar linking him to businessmen who said they bribed him.
The defense repeatedly said prosecutors overstated Nagin's authority to approve contracts. His lawyer said there is no proof money and material given to the granite business owned by Nagin and his sons was tied to city business.
The charges against Nagin included one overarching conspiracy count along with six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of filing false tax returns. He was acquitted of one of the bribery counts.
Each charges carries a sentence from 3 to 20 years, but how long he would serve was unclear and will depend on a pre-sentence investigation and various sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date was set.
The charges resulted from a City Hall corruption investigation that had resulted in several convictions or guilty pleas by former Nagin associates by the time trial started on January 27.
Fradella and Williams, both awaiting sentencing for their roles in separate bribery schemes alleged in the case, each testified that they bribed Nagin.
Nagin's former technology chief, Greg Meffert, who also is awaiting sentencing after a plea deal, told jurors he helped another businessman, Mark St. Pierre, bribe Nagin with lavish vacation trips.
St. Pierre did not testify. He was convicted in the case in 2011.
Nagin said he did not to know his vacation trips to Jamaica and Hawaii were paid for by St. Pierre.
He also said he wasn't told that a family trip to New York was paid for by a movie theater owner who, prosecutors said, received help with a city tax issue after Katrina wiped out the theater.
Corruption is not a new issue in the Pelican State as it has been rocked by corruption in public office for decades.
The most infamous case was that of Governor Huey Long, who went on toe become a Senator before he was assassinated in 1932.
The Democrat, who gave himself the nickname of 'the Kingfish', Long was the state's governor during the Depression from 1928 to 1932 and pushed through public works programs using threats, blackmail and all political means he could think of.
Many called for his impeachment but he was able to fight off the charge- and eventually win a third term as governor- after he had enough members of the state legislature sign a document saying they would not vote against him in spite of the evidence in exchange for cash and state jobs.
Perhaps the most infamous is former governor Edwin Edwards, who had four terms in the 1970s, 80s and 90s before serving time in federal prison for bribery and extortion over a scheme to rig riverboat casino licenses.
On release from jail in 2011, the ex-con launched himself as a reality TV star in a show called The Governor's Wife, following the 86-year-old and his 35-year-old wife Trina.
Louisiana was the state that had the most convictions against public officials in the past ten years, according to a September 2013 Justice Department report.
The Southern state had nine convictions per 100,000 population. Overall Louisiana convicted 403 public officials in the past ten years- and that figure does not include Nagin's guilty verdict.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/12/article-2557706-1B6FA24500000578-694_634x757.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2557706/Ex-New-Orleans-mayor-convicted-taking-bribes.html#ixzz2t8nlwdFt
Ray Nagin was found guilty on 20 different counts and each carries anywhere between a 3-year or 20-year sentence
Nagin, a Democrat, was the mayor of New Orleans from 2002 to 2010
Saw the city through reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina in 2005
Was charged with accepting bribes like lavish trips and concrete for his family's construction business in exchange for securing city contracts
The former mayor of New Orleans has been found guilty on 20 of the 21 federal corruption counts he faced including taking bribes and free trips from contractors in exchange for securing city contracts.
The federal jury alleged that Ray Nagin accepted the bribes after helping the private companies win million-dollar projects.
Nagin is best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans and plunging the city into chaos.
The corruption that he was charged with occurred both before and after the devastating hurricane in August 2005.
The Democratic mayor who led the city from 2002 to 2010 was indicted in January 2013 on charges he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and truckloads of free granite in the illegal dealings.
He also was charged with accepting thousands of dollars in payoffs from another businessman for his help in securing city contracts.
Before the verdict was read, Nagin said outside the courtroom that he's 'been at peace with this for a long time. I'm good.'
Nagin testified that key witnesses lied and prosecutors misinterpreted evidence including emails, checks and pages from his appointment calendar linking him to businessmen who said they bribed him.
The defense repeatedly said prosecutors overstated Nagin's authority to approve contracts. His lawyer said there is no proof money and material given to the granite business owned by Nagin and his sons was tied to city business.
The charges against Nagin included one overarching conspiracy count along with six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of filing false tax returns. He was acquitted of one of the bribery counts.
Each charges carries a sentence from 3 to 20 years, but how long he would serve was unclear and will depend on a pre-sentence investigation and various sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date was set.
The charges resulted from a City Hall corruption investigation that had resulted in several convictions or guilty pleas by former Nagin associates by the time trial started on January 27.
Fradella and Williams, both awaiting sentencing for their roles in separate bribery schemes alleged in the case, each testified that they bribed Nagin.
Nagin's former technology chief, Greg Meffert, who also is awaiting sentencing after a plea deal, told jurors he helped another businessman, Mark St. Pierre, bribe Nagin with lavish vacation trips.
St. Pierre did not testify. He was convicted in the case in 2011.
Nagin said he did not to know his vacation trips to Jamaica and Hawaii were paid for by St. Pierre.
He also said he wasn't told that a family trip to New York was paid for by a movie theater owner who, prosecutors said, received help with a city tax issue after Katrina wiped out the theater.
Corruption is not a new issue in the Pelican State as it has been rocked by corruption in public office for decades.
The most infamous case was that of Governor Huey Long, who went on toe become a Senator before he was assassinated in 1932.
The Democrat, who gave himself the nickname of 'the Kingfish', Long was the state's governor during the Depression from 1928 to 1932 and pushed through public works programs using threats, blackmail and all political means he could think of.
Many called for his impeachment but he was able to fight off the charge- and eventually win a third term as governor- after he had enough members of the state legislature sign a document saying they would not vote against him in spite of the evidence in exchange for cash and state jobs.
Perhaps the most infamous is former governor Edwin Edwards, who had four terms in the 1970s, 80s and 90s before serving time in federal prison for bribery and extortion over a scheme to rig riverboat casino licenses.
On release from jail in 2011, the ex-con launched himself as a reality TV star in a show called The Governor's Wife, following the 86-year-old and his 35-year-old wife Trina.
Louisiana was the state that had the most convictions against public officials in the past ten years, according to a September 2013 Justice Department report.
The Southern state had nine convictions per 100,000 population. Overall Louisiana convicted 403 public officials in the past ten years- and that figure does not include Nagin's guilty verdict.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/12/article-2557706-1B6FA24500000578-694_634x757.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2557706/Ex-New-Orleans-mayor-convicted-taking-bribes.html#ixzz2t8nlwdFt