NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — United States Attorney Kenneth Polite announced the indictment of Orleans Parish School Board member Ira Thomas in connection with a school system contract.
Thomas was also the chief of the campus police department at SUNO. But within hours of the announcement of the indictment, both SUNO and the school board announced Thomas had submitted his resignation.
According to Polite’s office, Thomas, during his time on the school board, conspired to award a janitorial contract to a company in exchange for a $5,000 campaign contribution.
“These conversations were recorded by that individual again with the assistance of the FBI,” Polite said Friday afternoon.
The scheme began in the fall of 2013 and continued into 2015, according to documents.
Thomas also previously ran for Orleans Parish Sheriff. According to polite, the conspirators planned to refer to the bribery money as a campaign donation.
“In December of 2013, the individual delivered $5,000 in cash to a private citizen who acted as a go-between to Mr. Thomas.”
Thomas will be arraigned at 2:00 on Monday. If convicted, he could get five years in prison and pay a $250,000 fine.
“Today’s announcement should send a message to those public officials who are engaging in corruption, or are even contemplating doing so,” stated Polite. “Everyone in this community — law enforcement, average resident, your co-worker, even those who you believe are trusted co-conspirators — will eventually work together to turn a spotlight on your criminality.”
The FBI’s Special Agent in Charge for New Orleans also compared the Thomas investigation to the department’s work to build cases against former mayor Ray Nagin and former St Tammany coroner Peter Galvan. Michael Anderson said there was one big difference. For more details, click on the video button above.
More details will follow on WGNO News and on this website, digital-release.wgno.com.