Louisiana Has a Long History of Political Corruption

U.S.|New Orleans Mayor Joins Long Line of Louisiana Politicians Accused of Corruption

Hundred-dollar bills stashed in a freezer. Riverboat casino licenses sold to the highest bidder. Truckloads of granite traded in a quid pro quo.

Louisiana has a long and colorful history of political corruption allegations, which for decades have ensnared lawmakers at many levels of government. The most recent was Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans, who was indicted on Friday after a lengthy federal investigation.

According to the charges laid out in the indictment, Ms. Cantrell abused public funds to facilitate a romantic relationship with her bodyguard, a city police officer, and then sought to cover up the personal time they spent together in New Orleans and on out-of-state trips while he claimed to be on duty. Ms. Cantrell’s lawyer said on Friday that he needed to review the indictment before commenting; he declined to comment again on Saturday.

Here’s a look back at some of the most significant corruption scandals in Louisiana history:

Richard Leche

After the assassination of Huey Long, a popular Louisiana governor turned United States senator, in 1935, Richard Leche emerged as his successor. But Mr. Leche’s single term as governor came to an early end when he resigned in 1939 amid corruption allegations.

His resignation failed to stave off charges, and in 1940, he was convicted of mail fraud in a plot that prosecutors said involved a dealer selling trucks to the state’s Highway Department at excessively high prices, and then giving Mr. Leche a kickback. He served five years in prison before President Harry S. Truman pardoned him in 1953.

Huey and Earl Long

Earl Long, the lieutenant governor under Leche in 1939, was swept into the state's highest office when his predecessor resigned. Mr. Leche’s scandals loomed over Mr. Long’s first term, and in 1940, Long was himself charged with embezzlement. The charges didn’t stick, however, and Mr. Long would go on to win the governorship in two elections, holding office from 1948 to 1952 and from 1956 to 1960, in a career defined by personal excess and eccentric behavior.

He entered politics in the shadow of his older brother, Huey Long, a populist champion of the poor whose brash rhetoric, ambitious public works and strong-arming of his opposition made him a legend in the state. The elder Long was himself dogged by corruption allegations up until his 1935 assassination, though he, too, was never convicted. Earl Long in many ways embraced his brother’s ideology and style, defining an era in Louisiana politics.

Edwin Edwards

Mr. Edwards — the only four-term governor in Louisiana’s history — occupied the Governor’s Mansion on and off from 1972 to 1996 after a stint in Congress. He embraced scandal and flamboyance as part of his political brand, holding high-rolling poker games, publicly winking at his womanizing habits and taking expensive excursions to Las Vegas and Monte Carlo.

He also fended off a seemingly endless parade of criminal investigations. Prosecutors finally pinned down Edwards in 2000, when he was convicted in a scheme that involved selling riverboat casino licenses during his final term as governor. He spent more than eight years in prison before an unsuccessful attempt at a political comeback in 2014.

William Jefferson

William Jefferson’s 18-year tenure as a Louisiana congressman ended in scandal after an F.B.I. investigation, which began in 2005, uncovered that he had taken bribes from American citizens to help advance their business interests in Africa. In one episode, F.B.I. agents recorded Mr. Jefferson taking $100,000 from a government informant, and then found $90,000 of that same money in a freezer during a search of Mr. Jefferson’s home.

After a protracted legal battle, Mr. Jefferson was convicted in 2009 on counts that included bribery, racketeering and money laundering. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. In 2017, a judge tossed out seven of the 10 charges of which Mr. Jefferson was convicted, after a Supreme Court ruling on an unrelated corruption case, and ordered his release.

Ray Nagin

Mr. Nagin rose to national prominence as the mayor of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the city’s recovery from it, presiding from 2002 to 2010.

In 2014, he was convicted on more than 20 counts of bribery and fraud, stemming from a long line of deals in which prosecutors said he awarded city contracts or offered favors to contractors in return for gifts or payoffs. One of those deals, they said, netted Mr. Nagin shipments of free granite to supply the countertop company he ran alongside his sons.

Mr. Nagin received a 10-year prison sentence, but was released to house arrest in 2020 as part of the government response to the coronavirus pandemic. His supervised probation ended last year.