Former New Orleans Mayor Indicted On Corruption Charges
Ray Nagin, the former Mayor of New Orleans perhaps best known for his incompetence during Hurricane Katrina, has been indicated on a long list of corruption charges:
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.
If convicted, Nagin faces the prospect of many years in Federal Prison. Couldn’t happen to a more well-deserving guy.
Dog bites man. Now, “mayor of New Orleans cleared of corruption charges”, that would be news.
@Dave Schuler:
The DOJ does not manufacture and hide evidence?
See Ted Stevens.
At the link Huffpo lies about edited Mitt Romney And Wawa video
Mitt Romney has had his fair share of seemingly out-of-touch statements this election cycle, admitting he likes to “fire people” and expressing amazement at the touchscreen ordering system at convenience store Wawa.
MSNBC mischaracterizes Romney remarks
Seems like big city politics are ripe with corruption. New Orleans is no exception.
Not particularly shocked.
@Paul L.:
Just curious, why would a Republican DOJ manufacture and hide evidence in a case against a Republican Senator?
Laissez les bons temps rouler, comme toujours….
looks like nagin is the last guy left , everyone rolled already so no deals for him.
Nagin should just say that these wedre “campaign contributions”. Viola! Legal.
Ah, Nagin. The only surprise here is that the indictment didn’t include more counts.
Speaking of Nagin and indictments, remember when Katrina was de rigueur? The preposterously biased news media coverage. The frothing rage in the left-wing fever swamps. The total cognitive dissonance emanating from left-wing college and university campuses and public K-12 systems.
Not to get melodramatic, but Katrina indeed was a tipping point. We crossed a proverbial Rubicon.
Although the public for decades prior thereto systematically had been dumbed down, Katrina and its aftermath marked a sort of critical mass, where the collapsed education systems, Republican derangement syndrome, Bush derangement syndrome, and extreme liberal media bias, all coalesced into a national state of hysteria. Material percentages both of the body politic and the public at large actually came to believe that one man was responsible for the aftermath of a natural disaster. Not a scandal of some sort. Not a bad economy. Not a failed military operation. A natural disaster. A hurricane. That one man personally could be blamed for everything that went wrong concerning that hurricane, before, during and afterwards. One man. A man who worked in Washington D.C. Over a thousand miles away.
The dissonance got so bad there was no amount of reality that could break through the noise. The levies had been neglected for several decades by state and local politicos, many if not most of whom were corrupt and incompetent. No matter. It was Bush’s fault. The NOLA police department for decades had been corrupt, incompetent and in various respects literally criminal. No matter. It was Bush’s fault. Ray Nagin was a political hack who couldn’t manage a game of Hold ‘Em, much less the preparation for and then response to a massive hurricane. No matter. It was Bush’s fault. Kathleen Blanco was a farce of a hack governor who not only was a dim bulb but who had the leadership skills of a mannequin. No matter. It was Bush’s fault.
At various levels we as a country have been in a state of decline since the 1960’s, but it’s not a total coincidence that our decline noticeably has accelerated since the time of Katrina. Once a public and a political class go completely stupid it can’t easily be reversed. And a truly dumb public and political class ultimately lead to very bad results. QED.
How the world turns…when a dirtbag like Nagin uses his office for personal gain, that of course is corruption…but when politicians accept millions of dollars in campaign contributions from entities that end up receiving perks from favorable legislation and tax breaks given to them by those same politicians, that is simply “free speech” and “democracy”…
That’s rather rich considering all the truly idiotic things that Bush did as president…but hey, why not blame all of that on the left-wing college and university campuses and public K-12 systems…hell, these education systems did produce all of the poor fools who voted for Bush…
@PJ:
Well, politics is only supposed to go so deep within the DOJ with most of the employees decidedly acting in a non-partisan way. Supposedly.
I rather suspect the Ted Stevens prosecution, conviction, overturned, etc resulted from an over-zealous “win at all costs” prosecution team. Who’da thunk it.
I rather suspect the Ted Stevens prosecution, conviction, overturned, etc resulted from an over-zealous “win at all costs” prosecution team.
I tend to agree the prosecution was acting out of a desire to “win” than a desire to convict a republican.
Our adversarial justice system tends to IMO encourage cheating in order to put a notch in the “win” column.
I think where political protection would come in to play would be at the discretion stage where a prosecutor just opts to not prosecute (see Holder justice department and Corzine).
On reflection I’m beginning to think that this is an indication of movement in the right direction for New Orleans, just as the multiple indictments of elected officials in Chicago and Illinois are positive developments. These indictments don’t mean that there is suddenly corruption where there was none before. They mean that at long last corruption is being treated as something that’s worth taking someone to court over. That’s good news. There may be hope for the future.
If there were true justice, Nagin and Blanco would have been tarred and feathered after Katrina. Remember the Nagin Bus Parks? Remember Blanco refusing to declare a disaster until pressed and pressed by Bush? Remember “chocolate city?”
Nagin spent years overseeing “disaster preparation and prevention” money that was essentially stolen by his political cronies. NOLA’s hurricane plans were a joke, and it was HIS job to try to keep his citizens safe.
And it was Nagin’s police force that decided that the best thing to do after Katrina was to break out the gun registries so they could confiscate as many legal guns as they could. Their goal wasn’t to stop looting, it was to make people defenseless to the looters.
And Nagin was re-elected after Katrina. Because he and Blanco were Democrats, and had to be protected, so Bush was blamed for a disaster response that was far, far more effective than Obama’s to Staten Island.
LOL. Kathleen Blanco. I’m surprised anyone remembers her name after she was turned into a non-entity by the Leftstream media the way Stalin used to airbrush his victims out of photographs.