Month: May 2012

Breaking: I have received a Slabb O’Gram from the Wino!!!!!

Folks a long time ago I worked a small part of a major criminal prosecution for the defense.  I’m not able to go into any detail about the case but suffice it to say it ended badly for several of the accused and to add insult to injury a joint/several 7 figure forfeiture order was entered. An obvious next step for those charged with collecting the ca$h is to gather financial information in the form of a personal financial statement and that is where I entered into the picture.

A meeting was scheduled with DoJ and we prepped for it.  When the question came up in discussions with legal about how forthcoming we should be I gave my standard answer which entails 100% transparency.  I ended up getting credit for that advise later on when DoJ cut my client some slack in the aftermath.  The problem was they could only do so much after they gained the conviction.

I mention all this because sources familiar with the ongoing investigation have indicated to Slabbed there are several bit players to the saga we know on Slabbed as the Jefferson Parish Political Corruption Scandal that may well get Jim Brown’d via 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for fibbing to Federal Agents.  This would be a damn shame IMHO because it is always the small potatoes that end up burnt the worst when the carnage is finally tallied thus the homespun wisdom we see in the local rumor mill of people like Fred Heebe skating, while others that did his bidding get hit with sentences that run into the decades (see Mark St Pierre covering for Ray Ray the Chocolate Guy). Continue reading “Breaking: I have received a Slabb O’Gram from the Wino!!!!!”

To further amplify the point ‘Gate, Steve, Patricia and I are making………

Follow the money folks.  Let’s recap and tie in two posts.

South Coast Today Nova Scotia on the Broussard Arraignment: Trout Point figure pleads not guilty in New Orleans fraud scandal

Canada’s third-largest bank said Tuesday it will acquire Corporacion Interfin and merge it with its existing Costa Rican subsidiary, resulting in a 13 per cent loan market share.

And that third largest bank?

I’ll be having further amplification of the following post within the next week or so but for now lets visit again with Steve’s recent comments where he let the Goatherders speak for themselves:

Jurisdictions in which we have particular experience and access include Spain, Andorra, Panama, Costa Rica, and Delaware.

Institutions we refer clients to include HSBC Offshore, Anglo Irish Bank, Wachovia, Royal Bank of Canada, BBVA, Scotiabank de Costa Rica, Lydian Private Bank, and Barclay’s. Continue reading “To further amplify the point ‘Gate, Steve, Patricia and I are making………”

In this episode of Magnum J.D.: “it’s about the package and the people that surround it”

Folks last night’s latest from Baldwin v Costner made me and a couple of lifers nostalgic for Slabbed’s previous coverage of the shakedown of BP by Kevin Costner and others that ended up stuffing money into the pockets of several notable area politicians. Let’s review:

iVideo: Kevin Costner’s device for cleaning oil spill in action ~ WWL Tee Vee. Who dat??????

There’s no business like show business…..In this episode of Magnum JD: Bull Durham comes to town and appears on the Toolman.

Buddy Caldwell et tu brute?

Slabbed closes in on the mythical contract between Magnum and BP, executed despite the fact Magnum was suing BP over the spill including the use of straw man lawyers to play both sides of the field: Continue reading “In this episode of Magnum J.D.: “it’s about the package and the people that surround it””

In this episode of Magnum J.D.: A BP Veep writes a memo about Magnum and Bull Durham.

Folks I’d like to take this opportunity to point out there was one media outlet covering the oil spill that called bullshit on Bull Durham and his useless oil-water separator real time as it was happening so while I take a victory lap, allow me to present the first of a raft of previously sealed documents in that star v star battle known as Baldwin et al  v Costner et al.  If you like a story where they are literally no good guys, only the bad and the ugly then this one is for you. Click the pic to nab the 2 page pdf:

When its quiet I’m usually up to something…..

And that is certainly the case this week folks as I’ll be on assignment. That doesn’t mean there will be no posts but that will happen on the run and I have some dynamite stuff in the works.  There are three items I want to address this morning.

The first is a reader from north Mississippi sent me the following link to Bellesouth’s blog and her coverage of the case involving Dr. Cassandra Thomas of Jackson.

Next up is the Goatherders, specifically the jackass that is their leader Aaron Broussard. Today we learn he will indeed be held accountable for causing the Katrina related flooding of Jefferson Parish by ordering the pump operators from the pumps as Katrina approached.  This guaranteed large portions of the East Bank of the Mississippi River would flood from the torrential rains which it did.  There are two schools of thought among the flood victims as far as I can tell, the first being most charitable in maintaining Broussard was a complete incompetent nincompoop as Parish Prez that was in way over his head.  I do not subscribe to that line of thought personally and will acknowledge this violates a heuristic I frequent use in Hanlon’s razor.

The other school of thought and the one to which I subscribe is that Broussard Continue reading “When its quiet I’m usually up to something…..”

Citizens for Good Government calls out Councilman at Large Elton Lagasse over his support of pay to play

From the latest CFGG email blast:

Supporters of Good Government:

Citizens for Good Government is distressed at the Jefferson Parish Council’s apparent dismissal of the Bureau of Governmental Research’s recently-released report on service contracting entitled, “Reforming Jefferson Parish’s Unusual Approach to Service Contracting.” When at the May 23rd Council meeting CFGG Vice-Chairman Margie Seemann asked the question:

“Has BGR been invited to present their report to the Council, or will they be invited?”

Councilman Lagasse responded, “No Ma’am.”

We were flabbergasted at this lone response to our question. Although he did not clarify his response, it appears that Councilman Lagasse intended to indicate that BGR will NOT be invited to present their report. Councilman Lagasse’s response was outrageous and unacceptable. We do not believe that he should have the final word about having the BGR report presented at a council meeting, particularly since he was quoted in the Times-Picayune as objecting to some of the conclusions of the report. Continue reading “Citizens for Good Government calls out Councilman at Large Elton Lagasse over his support of pay to play”

Heather Hilliard bounced out of the Young Administration

I hate to sound callous but I saw this coming with the very first set of posts I did on the Richard Hart-Heather Hilliard conflict. Rich Rainey has all the skinny.

Is Hilliard a whistle blower?  No.  Did how her complaint of harassment against Hart was handled set the bar for how these type of employment issues would and should be handled in the future? Absolutely because it was handled right despite the attempted interference on part of COO Chris Cox.

Yes, Hart well deserved the chop shop for his slaughterhouse management style but sources have consistently told Slabbed since the early days that Hilliard was in over her head as a CAO.  Both illustrate a consistent criticism I’ve heard about the Young Administration that many members of his senior management team are long on legal/professional credentials and very short on practical management experience. I’ll add no amount of experience can help someone with Hart’s personality type, which is well suited for industries like construction that need strong willed a-holes to push jobs to completion.

That said debacles like the Hart-Hilliard saga are certainly giving those previously uninitiated in the art of management in team Young a very quick education.

sop