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1/18/13, "Katrina-era mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin indicted on 21 corruption charges," AP, Houston Chronicle
"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."
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."
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