A sweeping federal probe into New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell reveals prosecutors are also looking into whether or not the mayor received gifts or gratuities in exchange for firing a top-tier city official according to a report by our partners at The Times-Picayune.
This latest revelation comes out of the federal investigation into several allegations swirling around the Cantrell.
As our partners at the news outlet discovered, among those many allegations the feds are focused on one suggests federal prosecutors are examining gifts, such as tickets to Saints games, the mayor allegedly received from Randy Farrell whose firm IECI performed private building and electrical inspections for the city.
Prosecutors believe such gifts were given to Cantrell for firing Jennifer Cecil, the city’s Deputy Director of the Safety and Permits Department back in August 2019 as she was raising suspicions to the mayor about Farrell and the permits.
“As a federal prosecutor, you would want to get all the communication surrounding that decision, including Ms. Cecil's communications with anybody explaining why she believed she was fired,” said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Chester told WWL Louisiana’s David Hammer back in March.
As WWL Louisiana reported then, in June of 2018 Cecil sent emails and evidence to the Inspector General’s Office suggesting that Farrell, the owner of a private safety inspection firm, was using the name of one electrician to buy thousands of electrical work permits under a licensed electrician’s name, then signing off that the work was safe.
By law, Farrell and IECI’s other inspectors cannot get contractor jobs in the city as a way of ensuring they aren’t inspecting their own handiwork.
Cantrell has denied all wrongdoing in the investigation.
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