HOW HE GOT HIS

Greg Meffert, former city tech chief, pleads guilty
Published: Monday, November 01, 2010, 4:15 PM Updated: Monday, November 01, 2010, 5:58 PM


Former New Orleans city technology chief Greg Meffert pleaded guilty this afternoon to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bribery and one count of filing a false income tax return.
Greg Meffert, former Mayor Ray Nagin's technology chief, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to deprive citizens of New Orleans of honest services.

His wife, Linda, has agreed to complete a pretrial diversion program. She will avoid time in prison provided she completes the program satisfactorily, prosecutors said.


As part of his plea, Meffert signed a statement admitting he steered roughly $4 million in no-bid city work to city contractor Mark St. Pierre and accepted more than $860,000 in bribes and kickbacks in return.

A grand jury had charged Meffert, his wife and St. Pierre with conspiracy, bribery and public corruption in a sweeping 63-count federal indictment just over a year ago.

Meffert entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the federal investigation began with a probe by the city's inspector general.

"It is a new day in New Orleans,'' inspector general Ed Quatrevaux said.

Letten said that Meffert "manipulated the procurement process to funnel millions in city funds to St. Pierre through his companies.

Meffert had "agreed to fully cooperate and provide truthful testimony when called upon.'' Letten said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3 and St. Pierre is still scheduled to stand trial on his own on Jan. 24.

For the first count he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. For the second count he faces a maximum of three years.

When asked by Falllon if he was pleading guilty because he was in fact guilty of the crime, Meffert said in a barely audible voice: "Yes, sir.''

The false tax return charges involves $65,818.42 of income that Meffert received and did not report to the IRS.

The bribes Meffert acknowleged included a $38,000 check, about $130,000 he charged to St. Pierre's corporate credit card, membersship dues of $7,500, personal expenses of $35,000 and about $647,000 he received from St. Pierre's company NetMethods after Meffert left his city post.