A federal grand jury in New Orleans Friday handed down a 63-count criminal indictment of former city of New Orleans chief technology officer Greg Meffert, his wife Linda; and a former vendor to the city, Mark St. Pierre.
The charges allege St. Pierre paid more than $800,000 in bribes and kickbacks to the Mefferts in exchange for Greg Meffert rigging the process to get city contracts for St. Pierre's business.
"All participated in a conspiracy to use Meffert's position with the city to manipulate the procurement process for technology services," said Letten. "The investigation which yielded today's indictment is not over."
Letten would not say if that meant any other names could be added later to the indictment.
Federal authorities in June confirmed a criminal investigation into the city's technology office and contracts for a surveillance program that employed cameras in high-crime areas. Friday's criminal indictments came days after a civil jury found Meffert and companies owned by St. Pierre conspired with Dell Inc. to unfairly compete with two other companies that worked on the camera program.
Of the 63 counts, 44 are against Greg and Linda Meffert and 41 are against Mark St. Pierre. Some of the charges carry a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count, but Letten said federal sentencing guidelines rarely call for the maximum.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
