NEW ORLEANS — A convicted tax cheat was indicted Friday on new federal corruption charges that directly implicate New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell in a bribery scheme.
Businessman Randy Farrell was charged with bribing Public Official 1, who is clearly identified in the indictment as the current mayor of New Orleans but doesn’t use Cantrell’s name.
The indictment alleges Farrell bribed Cantrell with coveted tickets to the New Orleans Saints’ second-ever home NFC Championship Game in January 2019, a fancy lunch at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in August 2019 and a new iPhone in October 2019. In return, prosecutors allege the mayor fired a city official who had been investigating Farrell for alleged wrongdoing.
There’s a five-year deadline to file federal criminal charges after an act of fraud or bribery takes place, and according to the indictment, next week would mark five years since Aug. 14, 2019, when Farrell allegedly asked Cantrell to fire a city employee who had been investigating him, identified in the indictment as Public Official 3.
The indictment alleges Cantrell had an assistant, identified as Public Official 2, inform Public Official 3 she was fired on Aug. 22, 2019, suggesting the feds may only have two more weeks to indict the mayor for her role in the same alleged scheme.
Farrell, who owns IECI, the dominant private building safety inspection company in the region, asked Cantrell at a lunch meeting to fire Public Official 3, the indictment alleges.
Public Official 3 is known to be former Deputy Director of Safety and Permits Jennifer Cecil. Public Official 2 is known to be her direct boss, former Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Chad Dyer.
The day after that meeting, city emails show Cantrell called all-hands Safety and Permits Department meetings for Aug. 19 and 20. Farrell’s associates also urged Cantrell to fire Cecil at the Aug. 19 meeting and the mayor asked if the department would function OK if Cecil were replaced, according to secret recordings of those meetings obtained by WWL Louisiana.
Cecil had been collecting evidence and sending it to the city’s inspector general, alleging Farrell was falsifying permits so his electrical company could do hundreds of jobs in New Orleans that he, as a safety inspector, was banned from doing. She also alleged IECI inspectors had approved those jobs as safe, which is illegal.
On Aug. 22, 2019, six days after Farrell met with Cantrell and three days after Farrell’s allies in the Safety and Permits office asked her again to get rid of Cecil for investigating them, Cecil emailed an agent in the Inspector General’s Office to say she had met with her boss and had been fired.
City records show Cecil was able to take paid leave from Aug. 23 to Nov. 15, 2019, before she was officially terminated.
Cecil’s direct boss, Dyer, was also fired in September 2019 after refusing to fire Cecil immediately.
If Cecil’s investigation had led to sanctions against Farrell or his company, it could have cost IECI millions of dollars in New Orleans. Instead, IECI continues to handle private inspections for contractors, checking the safety of their work on the city’s behalf. According to city emails obtained by WWL, the Safety and Permits Department did not revoke Farrell’s third-party inspector’s license until last year.
Farrell complained in an email to the city, claiming his third-party inspections on the city’s behalf, “working hand-in-hand with the city for the last 18 years,” had saved the taxpayers $1 million every year.
In June 2019, Farrell formed a business with one of Cantrell’s most vociferous backers, Fouad Zeton, the owner of the Magnolia Mansion. Farrell and Zeton owned Zeton’s house in Lakewood North together for several years. Zeton was later convicted in his own fraud scheme involving art he falsely claimed had been stolen from that house.
Federal investigators were able to seize Zeton’s phone during that investigation and got his communications with the mayor and Farrell. The indictment identifies Zeton as Businessman 1. After Cecil was fired, Farrell paid for Zeton to buy Cantrell a new iPhone, prosecutors allege.
Read the full indictment below:
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