Posted on 12/18/2005 7:49:14 AM PST by Neville72
St. Tammany Parish Councilman Joe Impastato was indicted Friday on charges of extorting at least $50,000 from the owners of a Lacombe business in exchange for using his position as a public official to negotiate a contract for debris disposal on the company's behalf, according to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who announced the indictment Friday.
In addition, Impastato is accused of attempting to conceal the fact he would benefit from the deal, asking the owners of Pontchartrain Chipping Yard to make payments to Impastato through other people, Letten said.
A grand jury handed up a three-count indictment against Impastato, charging that he conspired to interfere with commerce by extortion, interfered with commerce by extortion, and conducted and attempted to conduct money laundering. If convicted, Impastato faces 20 years in prison on each count and fines totaling as much as $1 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Hey...he only wanted half.
Tony Soprano has that deal. It was part of the Esplanade project thing. Fugggetaboutit!
Who hired OMNI? The State, locals or Feds?
Wonder if this is the tip of a mountain of other shady things going on through OMNI since the article suggests that an OMNI agent (employee?) could be involved. This kind of work is typically costed at $$$ per ton or $$$ per cubic yard and deviations from industry and/or contractural benchmarks should be raising redflags to OMNI management unless they are conveniently ignorant. My opinion....
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