Press Releases
FEDERAL JUDGE SENTENCES THREE DEFENDANTS IN ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD PROBE
October 29, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CARL COLEMAN, JEFFREY POLLITT, TANYA PRICE-DRAUGHTER, three major figures in the wide ranging Orleans Parish Public School Board investigation were sentenced by U. S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon to federal prison terms, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten. The probe has to date netted 27 convictions either by guilty plea or jury verdict.
CARL COLEMAN, former risk manager of the Orleans Parish Public School Board was sentenced to twenty-two (22) months in prison and three (3) years of supervised release. Additionally, he was ordered to pay $315,000 in restitution to the Orleans Parish School Board and $51,880 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
JEFFREY POLLITT, a contractor who paid kick-backs to COLEMAN was sentenced to sixteen (16) months in prison, and three (3) years of supervised release. In addition, he was ordered to pay $315,000 in restitution to the Orleans Parish School Board and $169,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
COLEMAN and POLLITT faced a maximum of 37 - 46 months imprisonment according to the U. S. Sentencing Guideline calculation for this matter. Because the U. S. Attorney determined their cooperation rose to the level of substantial assistance, the Government filed a motion requesting the Court to reward the defendant’s cooperation with a lesser sentence.
TANYA PRICE-DRAUGHTER, owner of an insurance agency that did business with the school system was sentenced to ten (10) months in prison, and three (3) years of supervised release. In addition, she was ordered to pay $17,314 in restitution to ING and $91,836 in restitution to another victim.
COLEMAN and POLLITT were charged by bill of information on February 6, 2004 and pled guilty on February 18, 2004. PRICE-DRAUGHTER was charged by bill of information on March 31, 2004 and pled guilty on April 29, 2004.
As detailed in court documents, COLEMAN served as Risk Manager for the Orleans Parish School Board. From October 17, 2001 to January 10, 2002, three fires and a flood caused damage to four Orleans Parish public schools. The Orleans Parish School Board entered into contracts for repair of the four schools with Horizon Group of Louisiana, a company owned by JEFFREY POLLITT. The four contracts contained allowances for profit, overhead, and administrative costs which allowed defendant POLLITT to obtain $300,000 cash to be kicked back to defendant COLEMAN. The defendants admitted that there was an agreement whereby in return for COLEMAN’s assistance in obtaining the contracts, COLEMAN would receive a kickback of approximately 10% of the value of two of the contracts. COLEMAN admitted in open court to causing the school board to issue a series of fourteen checks to POLLITT totaling $3,913,824.81. COLEMAN further admitted in court to receiving approximately $300,000 in kickbacks from POLLITT. The kickbacks were facilitated by POLLITT and COLEMAN on several occasions meeting at various financial institutions in the New Orleans area where POLLITT would deposit the Orleans Parish School Board checks into corporate accounts and create split deposits to generate the cash to be paid to COLEMAN. In other instances POLLITT would issue a company check payable to cash to fund the kickbacks. Under both methods this cash was tendered to COLEMAN personally by POLLITT or his employees. POLLITT noted on several Horizon checks payment to CARL COLEMAN with the notation “cc” on the memorandum line of the checks. As to the tax charges, POLLITT failed to report approximately $500,000 in income which would have generated a tax due and owing of approximately $169,000 for the tax year 2002. COLEMAN filed a tax return for the year 2001, but failed to report at least $163,000 on the return generating additional tax due and owing of approximately $50,000.
According to the factual basis signed by PRICE-DRAUGHTER when she pled guilty as charged in April 2004, PRICE-DRAUGHTER owned New Legacy Insurance Agency and was selling annuities for ING/Northern Life and Transamerica. Between January, 2001 and August, 2002, PRICE-DRAUGHTER devised a scheme and artifice to defraud ING by mailing fraudulent annuity applications bearing the names of Orleans Parish School System employees with fictitious social security numbers. The annuity applications were not funded by the defendant because the persons represented in the applications were fictitious.
Additionally, PRICE-DRAUGHTER accepted $91,836.00 from a person to purchase an annuity from Transamerica insurance company and then misappropriated the funds for her personal use.
Michael J. De Palma, Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation stated:
"Today's sentencing represents the latest chapter in the longstanding commitment of the Department of Justice and IRS Criminal Investigation to ensure that those entrusted to serve the public do so without reaping unlawful gain. IRS Criminal Investigation will continue to vigorously pursue those who intentionally evade the tax laws. All income, regardless of the source, is fully taxable and the Special Agents of the IRS are committed to investigate and recommend for prosecution those who do not fully pay their fair share."
The probe into corruption in the Orleans Parish Public School system was a unique partnership among several federal and local law enforcement agencies including FBI, IRS, and Department of Education, Inspector General. Prior to being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the working group was physically located in the Orleans Parish School Board building on the West Bank. The law enforcement presence was the only time in history that the investigative agencies took up residence at the entity being investigated.
The investigation has been spearheaded by Assistant United States Attorney Carter K. D. Guice, Jr. and Dall Kammer. The investigation remains active.
