NEW ORLEANS — Randy Farrell is a Louisiana businessman who was indicted Friday on new federal corruption charges that directly implicate New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell in a bribery scheme.
Farrell owns the largest private building inspection company in the state named IECI, in addition to other construction-related businesses. In 2021, WWL-TV reported that IECI was doing more building inspections in the city of New Orleans than the city’s own inspectors. The city work was worth millions of dollars to Farrell.
For at least the past five years, Farrell, his inspection work, and his business dealings have been under investigation by various local governments and law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Justice and the IRS.
As WWL-TV first reported in February of 2021, one of Farrell’s inspectors, who was moonlighting from his job as Kenner’s top building official, James Mohamad, was caught submitting duplicate photos to the city of New Orleans on inspections done for IECI. Farrell and Mohamad claimed it was done in error.
By March, Farrell and a city of New Orleans inspector, who was also moonlighting with IECI, were arrested in Jefferson Parish in a separate criminal case for filing false statements into official government records, obstruction of justice, and accessory to contractor fraud for allegedly falsifying inspections at a home renovation project in Metairie.
Farrell denied any wrongdoing in the inspection fraud case. But at the time, federal investigators had already had an eye on Farrell’s business dealings.
In November 2021, he would plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS for failing to report income. Farrell's attorney, Rick Simmons, said at the time that the charges stemmed from a five-year IRS investigation into family members' failure to pay federal withholding for undocumented workers and certain taxes from 2012 to 2017.
In 2019, the Deputy Director of the New Orleans Safety and Permits office was simultaneously conducting her own probe into questionable practices by IECI, Farrell, and some of his inspectors. Sources said Farrell moved to get Mayor LaToya Cantrell to fire the investigator.
In August 2019, Cantrell did just that, firing Jennifer Cecil, Deputy Director of the Safety and Permits office. She had ended her work to expose Farrell for allegedly falsifying city electrical permits and inspecting his own work.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.