I’ve come to the conclusion that when news of the Macondo well blowout reached BP corporate early on, decisions were made to approach the local power structure just like BP would in a corrupt third world county like Libya and others where corruption is both rife and the order of the day.
Serendipity is a wonderful thing and I had no idea the post I did which highlighted how local governments spent BP spill money in purely self-serving ways would be followed just a couple of days later by an exhaustive analysis of some of these same issues by ProPublica, in their story ‘Spillionaires’: Profiteering and Mismanagement in the Wake of the BP Oil Spill which mainly focused on the intersection of the spill and political cronyism in Louisiana. It is fascinating reading.
The problem is the writer, Kim Barker, stopped short at the state line failing to cross into Hancock County and the very same issues, where a trial lawyer/State Senator overnight became cost plus cleanup contractor and one where one local politico, Supervisor Steve Seymour controlled the VOO work orders through one of his Katrina compadres, a local restaurateur that enters into the cleanup biz whenever disaster strikes.
The commonality between all these men was their use of the media to distract the locals from the scam, whether it was the useless Bull Durham/Magnum J.D. oil water separator or Jack Stephens cashing in via abusing a nonprofit he has a fiduciary duty to protect.
This is a big story folks, one that is ripe for the telling IMHO. If ProPublica doesn’t want it……..
sop
In other news Ken Feinberg and Jim Hood are not making nice again.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_claim_6.html
Ken, you bald headed jughead, here on Slabbed we well know the concept of defamation. That is an awfully big bright bullseye you just put on your chest boubie. 🙂
sop
Why oh why I’m under an impression that from Jim Hood to Judge Graves to David Baria that it was someone owed huge money they extorted which placed them in an office of state where they could steal more. Thinking we’d die in 2000 Mr. Baria [ fuking ass hole] in 2009 court asked how are you’ll doing? My response was, that seems to be the question huh?
Talking court shit, check this out. A court order claiming dismissal of our claims in January 1998 as a final action of our matters fails to explain the $84 million accepted on me alone in August of that year or how my wife and child were added to the action of holding the awards for all claims after attorneys failed trial in earily 1999. At present we were force in self representation as the Hinds County, Thats Hinds County court contiunes to claim a January 1998 dismiss the court is copying all actions of this cause to me. They souldn’t be doing that to a dismissed matter.
Look out, we might just see Ross running again. He’s in , he’s out, he’s in etc. It’s my money and I want it yesterday! A known amount of $ 330 million was had belonging to us but attorneys sought $ 2 billion for killing us. And that explains why we never recieved any relief from these actions. Bet the entire matter was set up as though we were already dead. I’ll try and twilightzone their asses by out living them, wish me luck. Might even piss on their Graves they wouldn’t be the first.
Can’t wait to work on a documentary. Wonder if they’ll sit still for an interview? Maybe a death bed confession, their big on things like that here. lol
Did any of you happen to catch: “Who needs Rush Limbaugh when you’ve got ProPublica?” by Kevin Allman, Gambit? http://bit.ly/eghGrr
Not until just now.
You know Editilla everyone seemed to care about the little people. Remember how Nunny sure used a lot of them as cheap backdrops.
So Allman takes offense at ProPublica for writing what everyone knew real time. It doesn’t fit the talking points.
Where the fuck has Gambit been all these year when they were literally surrounded by a cesspool of corruption? The thing is now that all these local politicos have been bought off what chance do you think the little guy has?
Allman wants to point a finger at the messenger for going after the folks that contribute to his paycheck he can have at it. We’re after facts here not spin.
sop
This is now on WaPo.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/spillionaires_are_the_new_rich_after_bp_oil_spill_payouts/2011/04/11/AFjaqsWD_story.html?wprss=rss_politics
“”””This parish raped BP,” said Wayne Landry, the chairman of the St. Bernard Parish Council, referring to the conduct of its political leadership. “At the end of the day, it really just frustrates me. I’m an elected official. I have guilt by association.” “””
This is the soudbite of what the nation will be left with about our area.
I don’t know much about St. Bernard politics. I do know, or believe, that Taffaro was a vast improvement over Junior Rodriguez.
However, the Parish has suffered under the weight of Katrina & Rita as much as any parish.
So this is beyond sad.
Nungesser hooked up Costner with BP.
Houghtaling hooked up Costner with Nungesser & JP & etc.
Young, Capella & Roberts hooked up Costner.
And all of them hooked up themselves.
And that must have been repeated so often in so many ways.
Obama handed off the BP claims process to BP. Feinberg is for all intensive purposes an agent for BP. People who were harmed are asked to sign off on all claims forever more, NOW, for a check based on what they’re told is the true and fair sum of their damages. And this is legislated into stone.
People aren’t working in the Gulf, seafood is expensive and scarce(r), people on-shore are cut back, cut off and cut loose.
And the environment. Bugs ate the oil? No. The oil is there. The marsh is damaged, so is the ecosystem and will be for years.
The new regulations? Not happening.
Hey, let’s implement the North Sea regs and certify rig by rig. — No, not happening.
Like the ACOE – are those responsible in the department of minrelas management prosecuted? Investigated? Fined even? No, no and no. Go home, retire, or go work for a lobbyist.
Corruption is truly the leitmotif of not only the oil spill but our state and DC.
SOP, agreed, which is why I brought it up. You’re fairly aware of my attitude towards The 4th Estate and Where The Fuck Were They, or, Where Have All The Tattlers Gone?
Alas, like the view of corrupt New Orleans levee boards was deliberately used by the Corps PR and the ASCE to distract from the true cause of the city’s man’made disaster 8.29.05, I can see this vapid, opportunistic piece of drive-by journalism doing the same for addressing the ongoing health crisis in South Louisiana as a direct result of the excesses of BP et al.
As such, I also didn’t like the article either because it definitely throws a Red Pelican into the framing of the national view of Louisiana as an energy producer deserving her due. Indeed, I consider the ProPublica piece a fine example of carpetblogging.
I’d need to know more about the Landrys, as many of them as possible. Info can be fwd to me through sop, should it prove too sensitive for comments.
“””BP based its cleanup operation in the parish on land leased by Amigo Enterprises, which had been paying less than $1,700 a month to the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, according to the nonprofit
You are gonna love this. Look who shows.
“******Peter J. Butler, attorney for Gutierrez, said the matters should be heard as soon as possible because Meraux is in “failing health” and the board’s makeup needs to be decided before she dies.”
“The wrangling over control of Arlene Meraux’s assets heated up in August, when state District Court Judge Wayne Cresap ruled that Meraux, 80, was unfit to make business decisions because of her chronic senile dementia. Court records also showed she suffers from insulin-dependent diabetes, the early stages of bladder cancer, high blood pressure, organic brain syndrome and anxiety. Cresap appointed Gutierrez and Gue to run Meraux’s affairs after a closed hearing in October. ” – Cresap’s in the fed pen now of course.
************
“”””””””””A bitter court fight that could have sweeping implications for St. Bernard Parish has erupted between wealthy landowner Arlene Meraux’s family and the court-appointed attorney administering her affairs.
The debate centers on who should be on the board of the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation , an organization set up in 1997 to control Arlene Meraux’s assets after her death. The foundation is charged with doing charitable projects to benefit St. Bernard.
Attorney Salvador “Sal” Gutierrez Jr. was appointed in October as curator for the property and affairs of Meraux, who is in failing health and has been declared incompetent to handle her own affairs. Gutierrez has petitioned the court to have himself, Sheriff Jack Stephens and Nunez Community College Chancellor Thomas Warner named to the foundation board.
Gutierrez is also trying to have removed from the board Rita Gue, Meraux’s niece who was appointed by the court as curator in charge of her aunt’s day-to-day medical care and physical and emotional needs, and Gue’s husband, Floyd.
Gue is fighting those appointments and the attempt to remove her and her husband from the foundation board. And, this week, attorneys for Gue filed a motion to have Gutierrez removed as curator because they said he is not honoring the wishes Meraux expressed before the court ruled her too ill to make her own financial and personal decisions.
The legal battle has high stakes for St. Bernard since Arlene Meraux owns much of the undeveloped land in the parish. Although her fortune was always estimated to be much higher, a sworn affidavit filed recently in the record shows the estate is worth about $22,270,940, including about $9 million in real estate and $8 million in cash.
Meraux, the former Arlene Soper, was the longtime companion of Joseph Meraux and inherited his fortune when he died in 1992. A major landowner and president of St. Bernard Bank & Trust Co., Joseph Meraux was considered an eccentric philanthropist who cared deeply about his parish. The unincorporated community of Meraux is named after Joseph Meraux’s father, Louis “Doc” Meraux, who was St. Bernard sheriff in the 1920s and ’30s.
The wrangling over control of Arlene Meraux’s assets heated up in August, when state District Court Judge Wayne Cresap ruled that Meraux, 80, was unfit to make business decisions because of her chronic senile dementia. Court records also showed she suffers from insulin-dependent diabetes, the early stages of bladder cancer, high blood pressure, organic brain syndrome and anxiety. Cresap appointed Gutierrez and Gue to run Meraux’s affairs after a closed hearing in October.
The power struggle between Gutierrez and Gue began in late December and has been punctuated by three rulings of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.
Next week, Cresap is set to hear the motion to remove Gutierrez as curator and to decide whether Gutierrez, Stephens and Warner can be appointed to the foundation and whether Gue and her husband will be removed.
Peter J. Butler, attorney for Gutierrez, said the matters should be heard as soon as possible because Meraux is in “failing health” and the board’s makeup needs to be decided before she dies.
Cresap has agreed to move quickly, but attorneys for the Gues have already won two hearing delays.
In trying to disqualify the Gues, Butler has alleged that Meraux’s signature was forged on the May 2001 document appointing the Gues to the board. He has brought in a handwriting expert to study the document. If the signature was forged, the board is without members. It is unclear what will happen to Meraux’s vast fortune if she dies while the board is empty, since she has disinherited her two out-of-state children.
Meanwhile, Leonard Levenson, attorney for Rita Gue, has alleged that Gutierrez should be removed as curator for Meraux’s property and affairs because he’s taken actions that have run afoul of Meraux’s previously stated wishes. Levenson also has questioned the appropriateness of Gutierrez serving as curator and nominating himself, and his longtime client, the sheriff, to serve on the board. Levenson also questioned Gutierrez’s initial effort to nominate his law partner, Mary A. Hand, a request Gutierrez has since rescinded, nominating Warner in Hand’s place.
The board’s structure allows up to five board members appointed by Meraux, but now that she’s incapacitated, the court must rule on who has the authority to make that decision.
The foundation rules require that board members live or work in St. Bernard Parish and have the parish’s best interests in mind. The board’s size is frozen after Meraux’s death and only board members can appoint replacement members.”””””””””
-01.31.03 TP
*******************
More:
http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/meraux_box.htm
“Sidney Torres III represented Arlene Soper in Joseph Meraux’s succession
case and was able to persuade St. Bernard Parish Judge Melvyn Perez in 1993
to rule that Soper was Meraux’s putative spouse, although they were never
actually married. Torres then settled the estate tax case with the state
Department of Revenue, allowing her to avoid state inheritance taxes. Soper
changed her name to Arlene Meraux soon after. ”
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/stbernard/20100411/024880.html
There is *no* putative spouse – aka common law marriage – in Louisiana. Money stolen once, now stolen twice.
************************
“The foundation board now comprises:
Stephens [sheriff];
Gutierrez, the sheriff’s longtime legal adviser;
prominent local attorney Sidney Torres III, the father of local garbage executive Sidney Torres IV [father of Trashanova, Sidney Torres of coke use & garbage fame];
and Meraux’s niece and her husband, Rita and Floyd Gue, who had come to Louisiana in 2000 to care for Meraux. ”
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/04/meraux_foundation_embroiled_in.html
You got it Telemachus. Peter Butler is the tie that binds Jack Stephens in. I’ve been chasing leads on Mereaux for months now.
That lady from ProPublica has no clue what she stumbled upon. And simply stumbling upon it sent Clancy Dubos and the gang at Gambit into orbit. Gee I wonder why that is?
Editilla sorry if my ire at Gambit spilled through in my reply. Landry huh?
sop
that meraux foundation deal is so smelly. just the fact that cresap fixed it all should raise a huge red flag.
And it gets better Jr.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/10/bp_rent_to_st_bernard_parish_m.html
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/few_details_offered_in_bp_oil.html
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/10/st_bernard_marina_deal_appears.html
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/10/st_bernard_parishoff-duty_depu.html
sop
Oh, sop, no prob. I agree in both directions.
Yeah, the Landrys, not strictly in relation to St Bernard Parish.
Tele- is Mary Hand related to the Hand family you commented on the other day- originating back to the Hand that ran Marcello’s bar on the westbank? Hmmmmm-Jack Stephens announces he will not run for re-election I wonder why. Gee, does this sound a bit familiar with another big politico in Jefferson recently announcing his retirement. All the longtime politicos are packing their bags of gold and leaving before Clint shows up for the shootout.
Hey Lock – Funny, I did not even notice that. Mary Hand is Gutierrez’s law partner and was also managing things for Merauxs (how kind). Amazing.
In terms of relation I can tell you that Peter Hand had a brother, James J. Hand, who had a daughter, Mary Hand.
Peter Hand’s siblings: James J. Hand, Catherine Lampard, George Hand, Gloria Moran LaFrance, John Hand, Robert Hand. Wife: Rose Sinopoli.
Kernan ‘Skip’ Hand is Peter Hand’s son. So, if so, then Mary Hand would be Skip’s cousin. Skip Hand also has a dughter named ____ Mary Hand for whatever that’s worth. Mary’s a common enough name, but not Hand.
I think there are some northshore Hands too, not sure if she is part of that brood.
Speaking of that bullseye our boy Ken put on himself Dambala speaks:
I hate to toot my horn, but I have been posting about Guiterrez and Hand and Jack Stephens for quite some time now. They are thugs dressed up as lawyers in “da Parish.” They have looted the Meraux Charitable Foundation, about which the MSM has run some articles, but they get no traction. You would have thought that former Judge Cresap and the lawyers, Dauterive and Cusimano, would have squealed like little piggies on Guiterrez and Hand, but no luck. Then, how about the security details that Jack Stephens arranged for through BP that probably funneled tons of cash to him and his family. No wonder he can retire and not run for office again!
It’s funny, but from Parish to Parish, it is same song, second verse. The names change, but the song is the same – corruption, corruption, corruption.
Most folks do not want attribution when leaking me things Ima but I’ll happily admit you were the person who turned me on to Stephens and that Mereaux Foundation. Toot away it is well deserved.
sop
Pardon me for being obtuse, but is the “Peter Hand” referenced in some of the Comments to this BLOG, a former New Orleans Police Department Captain, who was NOTORIOUSLY corrupt, and a “bag man” for innumerable “payors” and “receivees” during his career? Someone really ought to do an expose’ on this guy. Ashton O’Dwyer a/k/a “The WHITE Henry Glover and Raymond Robair”.
AOD, There was an older Peter Hand who was in circiles with the Longs and OK Allen.
But yeah, there was also a Peter Hand who was a clerk at Orleans drug court.
And there was a Hand who was commissioner at 24th JDC.
And I think there was a Hand who was a cop, though that might be the same as the Peter Hand you have.
Plus of course the JP district judge.
Nice placement to help those in “need” after being unfairly accused (surely) or misunderstood of having performed misdeeds.
Joseph Meraux’s death.
There is more, a certain person who worked for Joe and knew of Arlene’s illness saw an opportunity to have it all. When Joe died in his driveway, alone and at night with no one around, there was no autopsy.