Saturday, June 09, 2012

Who wants to place a bet?

...that we have, yet another, con-profit on hand.



David over at Confederacy of Dunces has picked up the trail of the con-profit tip I got on Bajoie.  Turns out,  in 2005, the New Orleans Urban Tourism Hospitality Training and Economic Development Foundation got up to 100k of state gaming revenue dedicated to them from  the Fairgrounds' slot machines.

This business proposition appears to have been negotiated and enacted into law by the Louisiana legislature.

What is the acronym for this one?  NOUTHTEDF.  We need a nickname for this thing....you guys get busy.

Anyway, I checked the legislative auditor's database and I couldn't find any audits on them.  I'm going to call Monday to see if there is anything that may not be on the website.

David brings up another interesting observation:
It’s not clear what the Foundation does but it’s registered with the state as a non-profit corporation. It lists Orlando Bajoie as a Director, with an address at 3421 Loyola. But this appears to be a typo since other records filed with the Secretary of State of an “Olander” Bajoie are also listed at 3421 Loyola. Olander Bajoie is the brother of Diana.
This is a Google street view of the address, 3435 Magnolia,  where the entity is registered:



This is the street view of the address "Orlando" Bajoie, 3421 Loyola Ave., lists as the Director of the organization:



Another interesting flag on this thing is that their status was revoked on 11/19/2010 but they were then reinstated on 6/4/2011.

They are currently not in good standing.

It must still be operational if they reinstated it in 2011, right?

This has all the hallmarks of a classic Jeffersonian con-profit.  If anyone knows how to get their audits, please advise.   

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Family affair?
http://www.suno.edu/Alumni_and_Friends/Economic_Urban_Tourism.html

Am not sophisticated enough to follow all the threads, but wonder if this position is funded by the grant?

Anonymous said...

AZ, curious if your Lens comment of "all roads lead to video poker and landfills" refers to a certain family underneath it all, that certain d-bags are merely front men? Summing it up correctly?

Jason Brad Berry said...

Well, it's not just one "family" in that sense. But look at the players that are involved in either one or both of those industries and you will be able to trace back 90% of the corruption in both Jefferson and Orleans parish leading to public officials.

Ask how many JP city council members have interest in video poker casinos in LA....or better yet it would be easier to ask how many don't.

Anonymous said...

one minor note: the "good standing" thing is purely administrative. if you forget to renew online ($25) it's automatically flagged to bad standing. pop online and pay, good standing.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Yeah, I know. It just shows a lack of attention more than anything. But when profiling a con-profit those little details are important. For an organization that is supposedly pulling in up to 100k a year, one would think they would remember to pay their SOS fees.

Anonymous said...

AZ, totally unrelated of course to all roads leading, do you remember the huge drug bust that involved California, Atlanta, and New Orleans, the bust that interestingly barely warranted any local press despite a distribution point being here?

What a colorful story one could make up about a much lesser known family member who is in and out of bankruptcies, likes little boys, screws up the Medicaid/Medicare scams, and gets sent out of Metairie to run the drug ring from the Atlanta suburbs. When he eventually gets busted for his particular bent, you bring him back and throw him at construction/real estate/contracting, and other schemes. What a wonderful fairy tale this might make.

Anonymous said...

Last anon, I would like to read such a fairy tale.

AZ, another con-profit is not a surprise, but it totally sucks.

So much of the damage done in the aftermath of Karina and the Flood and later, after BP, was not connected to whatever was natural or accidental about those events.

It was just straight up nasty people using the cover of crisis to try to ruin their already hurting neighbors.

(I'm not over learning that those construction delays were intentionally designed to put people who held leases on desirable properties out of business.)

This Bajoie con-profit does not seem to be connected to shock doctrine style disaster capitalism in the same way, but having such an incredibly high level of ambient douchebaggery ensures that the whole culture is at its saturation point for asshole behavior even before special circumstances create spectacular openings to harm people.

Grrrr