Cedric and Ike's greatest hits, Vol. 1

I was wrong.  I admit it.  I had a very important fact dead wrong about Cedric Richmond, Ike Spears, 5437 Crowder Blvd., NOCE and NOCAP......Grateful Realty did not own the property from 2000 to 2004 while the non-profits were housed there.

A company called Crowder Development Corporation, LLC owned the property.  And guess who owns Crowder Development?

Un-fucking-believable.

Spears formed the company in August of 2000.  He then purchased 5437 Crowder from Northstar Properties for 180k in September of 2000.  It would appear he incorporated this company for the sole purpose of housing NOCE, NOCAP and Cedric's office.  After the non-profits imploded and the LSED grant money dried up, he sold the building to Grateful Realty for 220k in February of 2005....the building had served it's purpose and a nearly a million dollars (that I can account for) had been run through it in non-profit funds...including a NOCE line item for 60k in renovations to the property.  I had a friend call the current owner of the building who is selling it and ask them if they had done any renovations on the building....she said no..no renovations have been done in at least over 10 years.

NOCAP did receive grant money from the LSED as well as NOCE.  I could only find one NOCAP grant for 15k:

NOCAP was running at around the same budget as NOCE ....200k.  The grant proposal did not have an audit of the company so I have no way of finding out where they were getting the bulk of their funding.

Get this....as I pointed out before the LSED grants specify that you cannot have a non-profit perform duplicate services in the same area:

Well not only were NOCAP and NOCE the exact same service, they even told the LSED that they were going to use NOCE's "experts":

Now keep in mind that NOCE was only paying one person a little over 4k/year to be the computer expert.  So far I have only accounted for 3 computers between the two non-profits and only one computer teacher.  They are asking for 1000 dollars in this grant to buy computers.  You have a company running at 200k/year to teach computer skills and "bridge the digital divide" and they are buying $1000 in computers.

That's pretty amazing...was anybody even reading these grant requests or were they just stroking the checks?

Notice that for the grant, Spears listed the NOCAP address at 1555 Poydras Street...I think that is his law office.  Also notice that on the bottom of some of these documents you see Spears and Spears upside down....that means the documents were faxed from his law office.  Interesting how he failed to list NOCAP's real address as 5437 Crowder....this was two years after they had already housed the non-profit there and they even put up the damn sign outside:

 
This is a classic Jefferson scam....classic....textbook.  Cedric Richmond is a crook, we already knew Ike Spears was but now we know Richmond's true nature as well.

I have accounted for over 50 LSED grant requests from Richmond totaling in the millions.  I would say a little over half those requests and money went to churches who had similar mission statements...bridging the digital divide, teaching kids to pass the leap, developing "life skills" for kids, etc.  Non-profits with names like A Blessing in a Blessing, inc,  Put God First Community Development Corp., Stars Over the East Television Program, New Life Community Development Corp., Doing Good in the Hood, LLC, Franklin Ave. Baptist Church, Roy Ave. Baptist church ($55,000), On Giant Shoulders, inc......the list goes on.

I'm not suggesting all these organizations were bogus, I'm sure many of them produced great results. I'm just stating that it seems the LSED was stroking checks at Richmond's behest without care nor clue as to what the money was going to or if it could be accounted for.  The NOCAP proposal even stated they were tapping another LSED grantee for services, NOCE, which is a clear violation of the grant requirements.  Was anyone reading this stuff or did they just stroke the checks every time Richmond told them to?

You know, I have to ask....do other cities dole out cash to churches?  Millions of dollars from the Hotel/Motel taxes being stroked  out to any church who can fill out an application and is in the favor of Cedric Richmond or another state legislator?

Here was one of my favorite question responses:

Nice....repeat the answer back in the form of the question and get 30k. 

Bottom line...Richmond and Spears were running a Jefferson non-profit scam out of 5437 Crowder.  There is money missing from the entities which can't be accounted for, including 60k via NOCE to renovate Ike Spears property.  I believe Richmond was fleecing that non-profit through a credit card and by proxy through the Executive Director he was romantically involved with.  I believe when the non-profit auditor/accountant found the irregularities, Richmond had the woman take the fall and possibly paid her to keep the matter quiet.

This guy is bad news....bad fucking news.

Speaking of "bad news"... I still can't believe no one in the MSM has had the balls to call him out on this stuff.

Movements in 501c3

I call this little ditty...Fanfare for the Common Unskilled Computer Man.

NOCAP - New Orleans Computer Access Project....the duplicate non-profit housed in the same building as NOCE, New Orleans Community Enhancement. Having the same mission statement, they were Clearly in violation of the LSED funding requirements.  Both organizations received large chunks of cash from the LSED and The Governor's Office of Urban Affairs and Development to perform the exact same services in the same small building on Crowder Blvd...owned by Ike Spears and NOCE C.P.A., Desiree' Honore's uncle, James Gray.  NOCAP's director being Ike Spears himself.

Here's a question for you...according to the Secretary of State website, NOCAP's last filing date was 5/8/2006...

 ...yet under a business filings search, NOCAP isn't reported officially dissolved until 5/21/10 (as is noted on the amended SOS file listed above)....

Nocap Business Filings    

...so what was going on with NOCAP between 2006 to 2010?  Was it accepting donations?  Was it funded at all?  Was it even operable?  Was it paying rent to 5437 Crowder Blvd.?

It seems to me that NOCAP played on for 9 years but there seems to be some missing notes from 2006 to 2010.  Mr. Spears, please feel free to chime in.

Let's take it from the top...

In the past couple of days I've received more documents about grants distributed to non-profits from the Louisiana Stadium Exposition District.  Suffice to say I would love to go back and research many of these non-profits, yet I want to stay focused on NOCE - New Orleans Community Enhancement.

One of the documents I obtained was the original grant application to LSED from NOCE....it was for $150,000:

What's interesting is that NOCE's original Executive Director was not the ED who stole the money later on.  And note that the original address listed for the organization was not 5437 Crowder Blvd.

 That address is actually a private residence which I am assuming belonged to the original Executive Director, Patricia S. Moore:

This is an important factor, here I show you the original budget for the non-profit.

Interesting that the ONLY person they have actually tutoring kids is budgeted at $4,680 for the entire year...that consitutes what I believe would be about 2% or less of the entire non-profit budget.  But the turd in the punchbowl is that they have a line item for $60,000 for office renovations.  Here's a more detailed explanation:

NOTE: This was two pages and I cut and pasted the bottom part of this image, but did not altar the budget in any way.

If the property in question is on several acres of land, we know it's not the residential address listed above, so I can only assume that 60k was used to renovate 5437 Crowder.  Is that even legal?  Can you use this LSED grant money and non-profit funds to renovate a privately owned residence?  No...you can't and it's even listed in the grant requirements:

The clear benefactor in this was Grateful Realty, the private company who owned 5437 Crowder Blvd at the time.  The way I see it, they owe the LSED $60,000.  I don't understand how the line item was even allowed to cut the muster (it's not mustard so don't correct me).  What's also interesting is that when Rep. Cedric Richmond signed this request for the grant his address was listed as 7240 Crowder:

One year later his address was 5437 Crowder, the same as NOCE.  Did any of that 60k go to renovate Rep. Richmond's office?  Or better yet did the building even undergo renovations?

Another concern I have is the fact that NOCAP (New Orleans Computer Access Project) was housed in the building at the exact same time and seems to have the exact same mission statement.  In the LSED Grant requirement list there is clearly a clause which states that the grant cannot be distributed to a duplicate service in the community:

They were in the same fluckin' building so I'm assuming that constitutes the same "area to be served" unless we're taking measurements by the foot.  While I don't have NOCAP's information or where they received grant money from, I have already shown that the organization's President Director was Ike Spears.  Well guess who was an original board member of NOCE:

Is it remotely possible that Cedric and Ike didn't have any idea that they had housed clone 501c3's in the same building?  I'm also wondering if NOCAP paid for any renovations to 5437 Crowder.

Both NOCAP and NOCE were terminated around 2004.  I have no idea how much money was channeled through NOCAP but I have been able to account for around 600k which was pumped through NOCE.

So this got me wondering if this whole mission statement had been reinvented in the present era.  Sho' nuff I found this:

Notice it was incorporated in 2004, immediately after NOCE's demise.  I'm not saying this non-profit is in violation of any laws are is not legitimate, I don't know.  But it just seems like this mission statement and the moniker "community enhancment" is the idea of the decade.  In light of it's predecessor, I would like to know how 2nd District Community Enhancement Corp. is being funded and which politicians are supporting it.

Also, I found this item in the LSED grant requirement list:

So I'm thinking not only does Grateful Realty need to either pony up 60k to the LSED or turn their property over to them, I think Cedric needs to turn in his Rolex or at least the diamond bevel.

More to come....

Can you handle Rachmaninoff?

Cause this is about to get very, very complicated, but if you hang with me for the next few weeks....ok maybe a month....there will be a big payoff in the end, I promise.  If I time it just right, it may be an opus.

For now...check out this dusty, old tune a reader just dug up:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Movements in 501c3": 

Really, AZ, honestly, I have no idea how you keep up with this stuff.

Here's a tidbit. Unbelievable how the Magic 8-ball always brings back the same names:

9/17/06 TP:

"Imagine began landing an abundance of city work not long after Nagin took office, created the technology officer position and hired Meffert to fill it. 

Meffert soon brought in Imagine to help him overhaul the city's antiquated computer systems. In an interview last summer, he freely acknowledged knowing the company's principals well, but he said that shouldn't count against them. He hired them because he was familiar with their ability, Meffert said. 

And while competitors have grumbled about the quantity of work Imagine has received, the quality of the work has generally not been faulted. Under Imagine's leadership, the city's Web site has become a useful tool for accessing city services. 

Imagine also helped create and manage the network of "crime cameras" that keep vigil over trouble spots and, in at least a couple of instances, help solve crimes. The company was featured in a glowing article in a technology magazine describing its efforts to rebuild the city's shattered communications networks after Hurricane Katrina. 

While the city has contracted with a variety of prime vendors for technology services since 2002, Imagine has remained a constant, holding large subcontracts under SEA Information Services, ********* which became ***Apogen***; Affiliated Computer Services, better known as ACS; and more recently Ciber."

Ok, now from the 7/24/05 TP:

"The New Orleans Computer Access Program in eastern New Orleans will be the beneficiary of a charity golf tournament Sept. 12 sponsored by Apogen Technologies. 

The tournament at Chateau Golf and Country Club in Kenner will begin with a continental breakfast of coffee and doughnuts at 8 a.m., followed by driving range practice at 9 a.m. and a shotgun start at 10 a.m.

Tournament Chairwoman Liz Newell is excited about the event and the money that will be raised. 

"This is our third year holding the tournament as a charity function and the second straight that we have chosen NOCAP as our recipient organization. When you think about it, it's actually a great fit because we are an IT (informational technology) company and they work with the public schools, students and parents in learning about computers. It's the perfect match." 

NOCAP, at 5437 Crowder Blvd., works to "ensure that all Orleans Parish public school students and parents have access to computer technology in their homes." Through the use of donated money and materials, it is able to offer free personal computers to qualifying first-grade students enrolled in one of the program's four target elementary schools: Joseph A. Craig, John Dibert, Ernest Morial and William Frantz. 

Newell is seeking sponsors and players for the tournament. 

"Our goal is to fill every player's spot in the tournament. That would be fantastic and raise a lot of money for a great cause," she said. 

As many as 36 teams (four players each team), or 144 total players can take part in the tournament. 

There are four sponsorship levels, Silver Tee ($350), Cart ($500), Gold ($600) and Platinum ($1,000), which provide sponsors with several benefits, including company names listed on the sponsor board, company logos on banners, hole sponsorship and registration for varying numbers of players. There is a printing deadline of Aug. 15, after which time sponsors may not be included on recognition boards and banners."

Apogen (Meffert/Imagine) and NOCAP.

Look at the prices of those sponsorships.

Wonder who participated.

Hey, SOP, Chateau CC - why shoot (shot of Rebel Yell) - ain't that Broussard's backyard? 

Children don't mean a thing, if you aint' got that bling

For the past four months, I've been researching a tip I received on current 2nd District Congressional candidate, State Rep. Cedric Richmond.  I was told that Rep. Richmond took a chapter out of the Mose/Bill Jefferson playbook and set up at least one 501c3 (non-profit), then bilked the organization's cash flow for personal use.  That's not a flippant allegation, and I was admittedly reticent to even look into the matter for fear of how much time I would have to put into finding the truth.  I, of course, proceeded against my better judgment.

Four months later, I think what I've found is significant and worthy of being aired out...particularly because the last thing I want to see happen is Jefferson v 2.0 march off to Washington, D.C. and pick up where bilk-master Bill left off.

After researching the allegations, I am convinced Cedric Richmond is bad news.  Here's my case.

The non-profit in question, New Orleans Community Enhancement, Inc. (NOCE), hit the stage in March of 2000.  While its mission statement varied from year to year, from what I can tell the entity was created to provide computer access and tutorials to under-privileged children in New Orleans neighborhoods.  Here is the most detailed mission statement I could find, which came from a grant application (click to expand):

Ok, I guess that's a noble effort.

The organization had very few employees, in fact only one full time employee who served as the Executive Director.  I have read 3 audits of the organization, by CPA, Desiree' W. Honore, and I can't understand how they were accomplishing their mission statement.  NOCE went defunct in 2004, for reasons which I will spell out shortly, but of all the expense reports I've read I could only find one where any computers were actually purchased, and that report only showed that three computers were obtained.

The physical address which housed NOCE was 5437 Crowder Blvd. in N.O. East.  Here is the building:

NOCE got off to what seemed to be a good start in terms of financial support.  Their funding sources seemed to be running at around 200k a year in their short 4 year tenure.  The sources of that funding were a handful of entities:  The Governor's Office of Urban Affairs and Development, the Department of Education, the City of New Orleans, Jazz Enterprises, Entergy, and the most interesting source came from Louisiana Stadium Exposition District (the Superdome) who funded NOCE through money they received from the New Orleans Area Tourism and Economic Development Fund.  Here is a revenue statement which shows the funders and the amount they provided in 2002:

So here's where it gets interesting.  At some point, in what I believe was 2002/2003, the director of NOCE obtained a credit card for the organization.  She then proceeded to use that credit card for personal use.  She also wrote payroll checks to herself which exceeded her allotted salary....and forgot to pay payroll taxes.  Plus there were never any minutes taken during the board meetings nor were there any real measures of the entity's success.  In fact it seems the board rarely even met.

It seems the CPA began to discover something was up in the 2003 audit.

And then by 2004, they had confirmed that there was obviously theft which took place on the part of the NOCE director:

2004NOCE


Notice they turned the findings over to the district attorney, subsequently the NOCE director was arrested and charged with theft.  I am withholding the name of the director because she is not a public figure, as opposed to Rep. Richmond, and I have no desire to make her life more difficult.

But the result of her legal woes, were quite fascinating:

Docket Full

The audit found at least 30k which had been embezzled from NOCE, yet somehow the NOCE Director plea bargained her way into a misdemeanor charge of theft for less than $100 and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $15,000.  I don't know if this is common practice, but that seems like the sweetheart deal of the century to me.  Also, her record was eventually expunged in March of this year...I'm not sure that's even legal, but I'll refrain from expounding on that until I get more information.

Ok, so I assume you're asking yourself what does this have to do with Cedric Richmond.  Well, it just so happens that Mr. Richmond was the man behind the money which funded the non-profit.  In fact he is the Louisiana legislator who applied and recommended multiple grants for NOCE from the Louisiana Stadium Exposition District:

Notice the address Richmond uses in this official legislative letter....look familiar?  Yeah it should, 5437 Crowder Blvd....the same address which houses NOCE.  In fact, the grant requests that were submitted by NOCE required a legislator from the NOCE area to provide a letter of support:

That's a pretty sweet deal..."I approve this grant and by the way, send the check to my address".

Richmond even had a phone attached to that address:

It seems the Louisiana Stadium Exposition District has been very accommodating to Rep. Richmond's grant requests....in fact I've heard he's made over 40 of them.  I wonder if they are aware of the track record of his chosen grant recipients...I wonder if they care.

Now the story gets juicier and I want to be very careful about how I word this.  The first question is what the nature of Richmond's relationship was with the NOCE director.  I have been told it was more than casual, and I'm confident that was the case.  This, of course, leads one to question whether or not Richmond was a beneficiary of the NOCE credit card expenditures, or bank account.

Well, interestingly enough, I have been told by two separate sources that Cedric Richmond used non-profit funds to purchase a diamond bezel from a prestigious downtown jeweler for his blingiddy-bling, white gold, Rolex watch ....here he is sporting that bad boy:

How certain of this am I?  I'm certain enough to print the allegation and await his response.  I have contacted his campaign for an interview but I have not yet received a response. 

You know, if this is true, this is a new low.  When Ellenese Brooks-Simms got busted for the software package she pushed into the NOPS for Mose Jefferson, she claimed she needed the money because her husband was sick.  I have some sympathy for that.  Yes she was exploiting children for her own gain, but she was also doing her best to help an ill family member.

Using children as a means to acquire cash from public entities so you can get your bling on....that's beyond shitty....that's McShitty shitty...that's Filet o' Fish McShitty.  That's fake theater popcorn butter shitty.  That's Airline Highway motel shitty.  You get my point?  Not only is it abhorrent, it's in extremely poor taste.

I went out to take pictures of the 5437 Crowder address today.  The property houses a real estate company which is listed as the owner of the property, Grateful Realty:

I am not sure if Richmond has any financial interests in Grateful Realty.  However, there was a sign in the front yard for another entity housed there, New Orleans Computer Access Project.

My spidey sense started tingling because that sounds eerily familiar to the mission statement of New Orleans Community Enhancement, Inc.  So I did an SOS search on it and lo and behold, whose name should come up:

Hey whadda you know...it's Ike Spears...with the exact same idea Cedric had for NOCE.  It looks to be defunct as well, but I'm wondering if NOCAP was a "grateful" recipient of some of those Louisiana Stadium Exposition District dollars back in the day.  What's really interesting is that both NOCE and NOCAP had nearly identical mission statements under the same roof....that must have been convenient in terms of sharing those three computers.  If NOCAP bought three more computers we'd be up to six.  I wonder where NOCAP was getting their grant money from and if the donors realized there was another non-profit soliciting grant funds for the exact same thing.  Jeez, with all these charitable entities working towards "bridging the digital divide" in the first half of the decade, I'm betting the city must have some pretty savvy computer wiz-kids running around by now.

I wonder how many 501c3's were housed in this property on Crowder.  I wonder how many of them were paying rent to the landlord and at what amount.  I wonder if the landlord makes campaign contributions.  We know they're "grateful", I wonder if they're generous as well. 
 
Folks, bottom line is that this is just one 501c3 Richmond has been involved with and I uncovered some nasty dealings right out of the gate.  If you want to send this guy to Washington and let him run amok, that's your decision, but at least now you know what you're getting.  I'm not advocating Cao or Lafonta, I'm just letting you know what Richmond is all about.

I was also told that immediately after the director's sentence was reduced to petty theft, she celebrated by buying a 70k Lexus SUV.  That's a curious thing to do for someone who just lost their 47k a year job and was nearly charged with a felony + jail time.  After having to pay out 15k in restitution, you have to wonder where you get that kind of cash to purchase such a sweet ride.

Things that make you go hmmmm......

Hey, I think I found Jesus...

...he's freeloading down on St. Claude Ave. and I think it's high time we sent him a bill.

There was a time, where I was much more willing to share my AZ meanderings with local MSM entities.  In fact, right before I launched the Cedric "C-note" Richmond foray I met with former WWL reporter Lucy Bustamante in an effort to work together on investigative stories.  I presented her with the information I had on Cedric and Ike and the two con-profits, NOCE and NOCAP, they had housed in Ike Spears' building at 5437 Crowder Blvd.

Lucy did a tremendous amount of research and groundwork on the issue but her superiors at WWL-TV were reluctant to run the story of NOCE and NOCAP despite the incontrovertible issues we found with the entities and the money being pumped into the building which Ike owned.  I believe their reasoning for not running the story was that it was during an election period and that this con-profit thing was commonplace around the city so it wasn't fair to shine a spotlight solely on C-note.  They told her she would need to find other examples for them to run a story on the con-profit phenomenon.

So she did just that.

What she found was outrageous.  If you mapped out all of the buildings along St. Claude Avenue that held non-profits you were looking at nearly half the properties on the street that were tax exempt per 501.c3 status.

But even in that morass, there were some glaring gems that simply couldn't be ignored.

One of those gems....6030 St. Claude Avenue.

This quaint, gutted building located right across the street from former state Representative Leonard Lucas's Light City Church, had no less than seven non-profits domiciled in the building:

Communication in Action
District 99 Advocacy Corporation
Gatekeepers Inc.
Light City Community Development Corporation
Prosperity Economic Development Corporation
Seniors on the Go
9th Ward Concerned Citizens for Change

All these entities were created by Leonard Lucas or his right hand gal, Audrey Walker.

Lucy went down to the location and talked to a kind, humorous, gentleman who lived next door to 6030 St. Claude.  She asked him if he had ever seen any activity going on there by a charity.  He laughed and told her, "I think one year they gave away some turkeys for thanksgiving."  She didn't have the heart to tell him there were 7 charities located in that building that were supposed to be serving his community.

For some reason, WWL-TV still wasn't happy with the evidence Lucy had turned up and she finally threw in the towel, turned over the public records she had accrued to me and told me to do my best.  She left WWL-TV shortly after that for bigger and better things in Virginia Beach.

I hope she's doing well.  I'm pretty sure she is.

I would still love to hear WWL's reasoning for not running the story she churned up.

Regardless....I took what she had uncovered and decided to dig a little deeper on Apostle Lucas.



Now I have a confession to admit before I unload this on you guys.  I faintly remember doing this but I got a little sauced one night and spent about 6 to 7 hours on the SOS database looking for non-profits and for-profits that were associated with Apostle Lucas and Audrey Walker.

What I found was epic.

I spent the whole night taking screen shots and cropping them down so I could dump this massive con-profit scenario on you guys.  Then I got up the next day in a foul mood and said, "Fuck it."  I was still a little pissed about what had just happened with the C-note scenario....I was in a very bad mood, so I just shelved it.

I figured it wouldn't matter anyway because the MSM was not going to touch C-note or the con-profit issue.  In fact, they still aren't touching it with the exception of City Business.

KUDOS to CB.

But being a zombie, I love to resurrect things from the grave and I think what I'm about to drop on you will blow your fucking mind.

Between Apostle Lucas and Audrey Walker....I found a whopping 23 registered non-profit organizations:

Citizens Coalition for Education
Communication in Action
Crossroads Community Development Corp.
Destiny Enterprises Inc.
District 99 Advocacy Corp.
Elizabeth's Health Care Community Development Corp.
Gatekeepers, Inc.
Giant Steps Ministries
Jesus the Light Center, Inc.
Light City Community Development Corp.
Light City Fellowship, Inc.
New Life Intracoastal Community Devleopment Corp.
Next Level Ministries
NU, Inc.
Old Fashion Care
Project Restoration Inc. of New Orleans
Prosperity Economic Development
Seniors on the Go
Smart Start Spectrum
The House of Exchange, Inc.
Varnise Lucas Ministries
Visioning Better Education (VIBE)
Youth Alive Inc.

Now keep in mind this was back in 2010...I haven't even searched for new ones since then.

I had to create a .pdf of the screen shots as there were simply too many to post as images.  You can get that:

Here

I think we can officially name Apostle Lucas and Mrs. Walker the king and queen of the con-profit game.  That, sirs and madames, is a direct challenge.  I defy you to out-Lucas me!  Get busy!

We might as well have fun with this, right?

I don't think anyone is listening anyway.

Praise Jesus!

It's my party and I'll lie if I want to?

No, I won't.

After taking on the Cedric Richmond story I've been writing about for the past several months, I've found myself on the other side of the democratic party.  I'd be lying if I said that doesn't bother me in some respect, but I didn't start this blog to promote my partisan ideology, I started it to focus on corruption issues primarily in New Orleans and occasionally on the state and even national level.  While I don't have the resources of a mainstream media outlet, I have striven to tell the truth, as I see it, in every story I've written regardless of my personal partisan bias or even my personal biases in specific.  I'm not perfect but I've done my best.

In regards to Richmond, I truly believe everything I have written and I've been careful not to write about the allegations against him of which I am unsure.  I still believe that he purchased a diamond bezel for a Rolex watch with non-profit funds....which was my exact allegation as opposed to the allegation the Times Picayune attributed to me.  I spent a lot of time researching the NOCE/NOCAP issues and I find it somewhat amazing that the numerous issues I brought up with these entities were overlooked and discredited by not just the TP, but other media sources in the city based on Richmond (not Jack Sutton) producing an invoice which states he purchased A Rolex in 2007.  Even after Sutton originally told me and at least one other reporter that he had located the invoice from 2002.  He told us more than once.  I also find it amazing that none of these media outlets are concerned that there is public record missing from the DA's office and the Criminal Clerk of Court regarding the NOCE case...I guess that's "not news" as I was told by a reporter who interviewed me regarding the story. 

Regardless, I believe everything I wrote to be true and I think the documentation I provided on NOCE and NOCAP warrants your (AZ readers) inspection and consideration as citizens and voters.


Having said that, I want to address a series of posts made this past week on the Louisiana Democratic blog, The Daily Kingfish.


The first one is a commentary, LA-2: An open letter to "Democrats for Cao" (if they really do exist).

Look, I get it.  Your candidate didn’t win the primary.  You are upset.  But you need to realize what is truly at stake in this election.

With all due respect....no.....I don't think you do get it.  (although I am not a "Dem for Cao")

So respectfully – GET OVER IT.

And look, the people who are pushing you… who are bringing up all these rumors attacking Representative Richmond – I think you should ask yourself – What is fueling them?  Could it be cold hard cash?  

The DK goes on to attack Cheron Brylski , a paid political consultant who is on Cao's payroll.  While I find it ironic the DK is attacking Brylski for performing paid political services,  I want to point out that she isn't the only one putting Richmond under the microscope.  I am, Slabbed is, and we are not getting paid by the Republican party or Joseph Cao.  I'm not sure what SOP's political affiliations are, but I don't think it's skewed his pursuit of corruption in Jefferson Parish, nor do I believe my political affiliation has skewed my research in Orleans. 

I believe both Slabbed and AZ are writing these stories because we do, in fact, understand what is at stake...we understand that corruption has destroyed our community for decades and if we are to move forward we have to bring it to an end.  I, for one, believe that issue transcends partisanship.  And while I am concerned about the national political scene, I am most concerned about my immediate community and I will not resort to Machiavellian logic at any expense.  In fact, I've always associated that philosophy to Republicans as opposed to Democrats...it's one of the reasons I consider myself a Democrat.

So as to who is bringing up all these "rumors" attacking Representative Richmond....I would be one of them and cold hard cash is not something I've seen a lot of lately.

No, no, no

Cedric Richmond jewelry-purchase allegations not backed up by credit card records

I did not make this assertion:

"Berry has claimed Richmond used the NOCE credit card or other agency funds to buy the Rolex, and then let the agency's director, Tina Dixon, take the fall when an auditor discovered the improper purchases."

Not.  I did not say he used the NOCE credit card to buy the Rolex.....here is exactly what I said:

Well, interestingly enough, I have been told by two separate sources that Cedric Richmond used non-profit funds to purchase a diamond bezel from a prestigious downtown jeweler for his blingiddy-bling, white gold, Rolex watch ....here he is sporting that bad boy

I did not say it was the NOCE credit card, I did not even say it was NOCE funds, and I did not say it was the Rolex watch itself.

I said I believe he used non-profit funds to purchase a diamond bezel for the Rolex....and I stick to that claim. 

"Berry has asserted that Richmond bought a Rolex diamond bezel in 2002 from Jack Sutton Jewelers using NOCE funds. He said Sutton, the jeweler, told him so."

No...I did not assert that Sutton told me that.

Sutton originally told both me and a WWL reporter that he had located the invoice for the diamond bezel from 2002.  He told both me and the reporter that they didn't keep computer records back that far but his accountant had found the invoice from 2002 and it did not show the credit card number but there was a notation on the invoice which showed that Cedric put $1000 down on a credit card and payed the remainder in a personal check.

I stayed in contact with Sutton every week for about 2 months to try and obtain the invoice, I was continually told to call back in a couple of days.  Upon talking to Sutton on the phone two weeks ago, he implied that they were having no luck locating the invoice....after he already told me they had located it.

As of yesterday, I discovered that the invoice had been turned into the Times Picayune and was dated from 2007.  I called Sutton to ask him how the invoice was dated 2007 when he told both the WWL reporter and me that the invoice was from 2002 (more than once).  He replied (paraphrase), "No you told me the invoice was from 2002, I didn't tell you that."  I replied (paraphrase), "That's not right.   Neither I nor (WWL reporter) knew exactly what year it was from.  You were the one who originally told us it was from 2002."  Sutton then replied (paraphrase), "No you told me 2002 and when I was told by the Times Picayune it was from 2007 I looked for that year and it was right there....they even have the CC number."

The date not only conflicts with his original story but the fact that he produced the card information also conflicts with his original story that the credit card info. was not recorded on the original 2002 invoice which he claimed he had located. 

To boot, he then admitted to the TP that he did tell me it was from 2002.

Confused?  Yeah, you should be.

A caveat:  I have also been told that the invoice turned in to the TP was photocopied. 

The TP obtained these NOCE credit card records from the NOPD.  However, upon a public records request to the DA's office in May of this year, they responded that the records were missing:

* I have withheld the name of the person who requested the record until I can confirm it is ok to list it.

The docket states that Dixon's official sentence wasn't delivered until June 6, 2007:

Docket Full

How was she prosecuted if the DA's office didn't have the records?  Did they lose them between 2007 and the June 2010 public records request? 


Upon searching the Clerk of Court's records division for the case # 453-281, an entirely different case came up involving a male crack cocaine possession charge. 

Dixon's record was officially expunged in March of this year, 2010.  Regardless, the Clerk of Court should still have the case records as should the DA's office.

Desiree Honore' declined my request for an interview, but since she is now coming forward and commenting to the TP, I'm curious if she will turn over all of NOCE's financial records to the TP or some other media resource so we can get a better picture of this entity.

On another note....

It's interesting to me that the other issues I brought up about this non-profit seem to not warrant print.... the 4 specific grant violations I noted about both NOCAP and NOCE, particularly the 60k in renovations to the building.

I had no idea  NOCE had garnered 588k in that four year period.  I am betting NOCAP raised about the same amount, which would put the total over a million dollars in 4 years.  From the NOCE audits I could only account for 1 line item which mentions a computer trainer which they had budgeted at about 6k a year.  That's 24k out of nearly 600k that was spent for actual computer instruction.

While I still firmly believe Richmond used non-profit funds to buy jewelry, I regret that I made that single issue the forefront of the story as it seems to have overshadowed the other documented issues I've pointed out with Richmond and NOCE.

But this isn't over....not by a long shot.  The time line on this election is redundant to me and I've uncovered a mountain of nastiness while researching this story.  Hang with me, we're just getting started.

Have I arrived?

I got a hold of one of the mailers which had the blog address at the bottom:

I feel like the old man in that...commercial which I cant remember the brand...."What does it all mean?"  All I can say is that I feel exactly like that young lady looks....I'm pissed and I want answers.

And BTW....NOCAP did cash in on the LSED.  I have the papers.  They're revelatory.  I need a day to do the scans and such.  Stay Tuned.

City Business Bump, June 25, 2012

Nonprofit inhabits city property without lease, sublets space

So we know they are paying rent to 12th Ward SOCO illegally, I am still curious how many 501.c3's are housed at that location and more importantly is there rent being paid to multiple locations, ie. 3435 Magnolia, from The New Orleans Urban Tourism Hospitality Training and Economic Development program.

This is a classic....textbook....con-profit ploy pioneered by the Jefferson clan.  House multiple 501.c3's in an empty building and pull rent in from all of them.  Hell, I've even heard of scenario where they sold one of the derelict buildings to the con-profit at an outrageous rate, then the con-profit turned around and sold it back to them at below market rate.

It's a shell game, friends.  It is just like Cedric Richmond/Ike Spears con-profits, NOCAP and NOCE, that were housed in Ike's property, 5437 Crowder Blvd.

American Zombie: Cedric and Ike's greatest hits, Vol. 1

Both con-profits performed the exact same function and they housed them in the same location to give the appearance that they were actually doing something.

Also, Anon is striking gold with every swing of the shovel:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Comment Bump, June 25, 2012": 

An NGO funding request for 60k for the period from July 1, 2011 thru June 30, 2012. 

http://www.legis.state.la.us/Ngo/NgoDoc.aspx?NgoId=1080&search= 

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Comment Bump, June 25, 2012":

Another Laners worked for SOCO preparing grants

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennifer-laners/19/64a/a04 

Let me take the time to point something out even though it should be obvious.  What's happening here is called "crowdsourcing".  I have only done a small portion of the sleuthing on this matter, it's Anon(s) who are doing much of the digging.  

I am pointing it out because I want to make a point about how AZ and other blogs have changed the landscape of hyper-local journalism and community involvement.  I will expound on this in another post.

All hail the Krewe of Anon.!!! 

A con-profit reckoning?

Looks like someone is digging up some old con-profit corpses and bringing them back from the dead:

Auditors:  Nonprofits with ties to current and former JP councilmen misused hundreds of thousands of dollars

Our old buddy former Jefferson Parish councilman and C-note Richmond wingman, Byron Lee, looks like he may have finally been snagged in the con-profit epic along with current JP councilman, Mark Spears.

AZ has covered some of Byron's con-profit meanderings ever since he came across my radar after I uncovered the NOCAP/NOCE con-profit scam perpetrated by Congressman Cedric Richmond and uber-political operative, Ike Spears.

Oh...that reminds me...in case you aren't keeping up, Nadine Ramsey announced her candidacy for City Council District C a couple of weeks ago.  I'm curious how she was going to justify residing over the Wisner hearing as an ad hoc judge in District D, offer ruling on that matter, then turn right around and announce her candidacy for city council.  I think I may have done her a favor by calling out the conflict when I did.  Also funny how no one seemed to care that the LA Supreme Court produced two separate, unstamped, documents on the same day for Justice Johnson's court order that had named Ramsey as a CDC ad hoc judge.   Both documents were requested approximately one month after the original order was supposedly created...one order was signed by the Clerk of Court, the order I received was unsigned.  Why were there two separate documents for the same court order?

Regardless,  Slabbed has been all over Byron , much more so than I considering it's a JP matter...waters I don't normally sail.  In fact, I think Doug originally broke this story.

I wonder if C-note will call in a favor to his new buddy in the local U.S. Attorneys Office to get some slack cut for Byron.  We'll soon know if this whole thing seems to magically go up in smoke like the elusive internal report on the commenting scandal that was supposedly being conducted by the DOJ.

Our old buddy and Apostle of the almighty, Leonard Lucas, probably won't be so lucky:

LOWER 9TH WARD ORG'S RECOVERY MONEY RAISES IRE OF STATE AUDITOR 

Thanks for the HT, Mr. Defender.

As readers know Lucas, the original Prophet of the Con-profit, is a long time target of AZ and I  reported back in June of 2012 that I had uncovered the motherlode of con-profit mining schemes when I started researching Lucas and his associate Audrey Walker.  Lucas had a whopping seven non-profits domiciled in a gutted building on 6030 St. Claude Avenue and between Walker and the Apostle I found 23 registered 501c3's back in 2010....earning them the infamous title of being the "Con-profit King and Queen of New Orleans".  I challenged anyone to outdo the Apostle and Walker and so far no one has even attempted to challeng the royal court.

That is until this report by the LA Legislative Auditor.

So it looks like the con-profit epic in New Orleans may be taking a turn for the worse...at least for some of those on the lower rungs of the ladder.  I'm sure you'll never see C-Note or Ike in that number...and should I even mention Bajoie?  Nah...no sense in bringing that zombie back to life, eh?

A non-non sequitur (you figure it out):

As I was writing this post it reminded me of the late night perusing I've been doing of the Michael Sherman email threads on Wisner and how in this city there seems to be only one degree of separation between just about everyone.

Retraction:  In this original post I posted an email from Michael Sherman's email chain and suggested a "Nadine" named in the email may have been Nadine Ramsey.  It was not Nadine Ramsey and I have deleted the email from this post.  Mea Culpa.

It seems like Sherman was a thread that weaved his way through all kinds of deals:

I'll do my best to avoid pointing out the sycophantic babbling to C-note (oops, I guess I just did) and just point out that Sherman seemed to be actively lobbying for Laney Chouest's NOLA Mortorsports park venture on multiple avenues.  That's curious considering Sherman claimed he had never met Mr. Chouest in a Wisner Trust Advisory Committee meeting.

It's also interesting because it's apparent from Sherman's emails that he had a significant interest in the JEDCO/JP Fairfield development which encompasses Chouest's NOLA Motorsports Park and is adjacent to Wisner property.  In fact, it appears as if Sherman may have even played a role in Chouest's purchase of the land from Joseph Marcello, who owns a massive portion of the property slated for development in the Fairfield footprint.  What's most important is that it appears he was conducting much of this business while holding a position as a City Attorney and serving as the appointee to the Wisner Trust Advisory Committee for Mayor Landrieu.