New Orleans contractor indicted, accused of gifting Saints tickets, iPhone to Mayor LaToya Cantrell

The owner of a New Orleans building-inspection firm that has long held lucrative city contracts was indicted Friday on allegations that he orchestrated a sweeping fraud and bribery scheme involving gifts to Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

A grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana returned a 28-page indictment against Randy Farrell, accusing him of 25 total counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud. Among other allegations, the indictment accuses Farrell and staff at his firm, IECI, of submitting hundreds of fake permit applications on behalf of unlicensed electricians who'd paid Farrell bribes.

Federal prosecutors also allege that Farrell gifted Cantrell — identified in the indictment as "Public Official 1" — thousands of dollars' worth of tickets to New Orleans Saints games, an iPhone and a meal at a steakhouse in a scheme to convince her to fire Jen Cecil, at the time a top official at the city's Department of Safety and Permits. Sources previously told The Times-Picayune that Cecil had?become suspicious?of IECI's business practices and had accused the firm of not being aboveboard.?

In a statement, Farrell's attorney Rick Simmons said his client, who had previously pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges, had been cooperating with federal investigators and provided them information about a lunch attended by Farrell, Farrell's business associate Fouad Zeton, and the mayor.?

Simmons said the government is now using that information improperly in its new indictment of Farrell.

"Mr. Farrell did nothing more than complain to city leaders about the dysfunction of the Department of Safety and Permits, a right he and all citizens have under the first amendment," Simmons said.

Cantrell's?attorney, Eddie Castaing, declined to comment.

Prosecutors' indictment of Farrell also implicates for the first time a top official in Cantrell's administration, described as "Public Official 2," who they say accepted Saints tickets bought by Farrell and provided by Zeton. Multiple sources familiar with the probe say that official is Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert?Monta?o.

Reached by phone,?Monta?o said he was "blindsided" and "flabbergasted" that his name was being mentioned in connection to Farrell's indictment. He said he had never met Farrell, had not been contacted by federal authorities and would not risk his reputation over tickets to a sporting event.

"That's not worth a second of my integrity," Monta?o said.

Attorneys for the City of New Orleans recently acknowledged that Cantrell herself remains under an FBI investigation, which sources say is now at least two years old.

But for weeks after the July indictment of Jeffrey Vappie, a former bodyguard for the mayor accused of lying about his work hours while pursuing an amorous relationship with her, doubt swirled about whether that probe would end in criminal charges against Cantrell herself.?

On Friday, legal observers said Farrell's indictment — which, like the one against Vappie, references Cantrell repeatedly — offers a fresh sign that prosecutors still hope to indict her. Former prosecutors say it's unusual for the U.S. Attorney's Office to gratuitously mention high-profile public officials in criminal indictments unless they plan to charge those officials later.?

The scheme

The indictment includes new details about Farrell's alleged scheme to get Cecil fired.

For months, Cecil had been investigating Farrell. She sent evidence to New Orleans' Office of the Inspector General showing Farrell was falsifying permits so his electrical company could perform hundreds of jobs that he was banned from doing. Cecil was also prepared to allege that IECI inspectors had approved those jobs as safe, which is illegal.

Had her scrutiny yielded sanctions against Farrell or IECI, it could potentially have cost IECI millions of dollars' of business in New Orleans.

During that period, federal prosecutors allege that Farrell and "Businessman 1" began lobbying the mayor to fire Cecil.

Sources familiar with the probe say Businessman 1 is Zeton, Farrell's business partner who has long boasted of relationships to Cantrell and other New Orleans politicos. In a separate-but-related case, Zeton is set to be sentenced next year for falsely reporting a dozen or so paintings as stolen, then inflating their value with the help of a New Orleans police officer to land an insurance settlement.

When the FBI raided one of Zeton's businesses in 2021, agents seized paintings and his phone, which contained communications with Cantrell — some of which appeared in the indictment of Farrell, sources familiar with the case say.

In December of 2018, Farrell paid $875 for Cantrell and Zeton to attend a game between the Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers, prosecutors charge.?

"Talk to (Cantrell) about what I asked please," Farrell texted Zeton. Zeton promised "to do everything in my power" to chat with the mayor at that game. ?

"She's need to go," Farrell responded, apparently in reference to Cecil, adding, "otherwise, I am not gonna support (Cantrell) no more. This is the only thing we asked of (Cantrell)."?

Zeton later texted Farrell a photo of himself with Cantrell at the game, federal prosecutors say.?

'King of the city of New Orleans'

Later, the indictment says, Farrell bought 17 tickets worth almost $6,000 for Zeton to take Cantrell and others to the another game — the?NFC Championship game between the Saints and Los Angeles Rams on January 20, 2019.

"I'm working on making you the king of the city of New Orleans and I'll be assistant king," Zeton texted Farrell.

"Just get (Cantrell) to get (Cecil) out," Farrell replied, "and we will be Kings with Safety and Permits."

Attorney David Courcelle, whose firm represents Zeton, declined to comment.

Later, in November of 2019, Monta?o allegedly asked Zeton for three tickets to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game that January, per the indictment.?

"Consider it done," Zeton replied.

In December, Farrell paid $1,160 for four tickets to a Saints game that month. Zeton gave three of the tickets to Monta?o and then attended the game with?Monta?o and two members of his family, the indictment says.

Later, Farrell allegedly paid about $3,600 for three tickets to the college championship game. Zeton then sent the tickets to?Monta?o, the feds say.?

Between January and August of 2019, Zeton and Farrell vented to each other about Cecil's continued employment, federal prosecutors say. On August 14, the pair went to lunch with Cantrell, along with an advisor to the mayor identified as "Senior Advisor 1" and two other people. Farrell paid the $831 lunch bill, the indictment says.

At the lunch, Farrell complained to Cantrell about Cecil and again encouraged her to "remove" Cecil from her job with Safety and Permits.

On August 19, Cantrell texted Zeton that she had had a meeting with Safety and Permits employees. Afterwards, the indictment says Cantrell told a Safety and Permits supervisor to fire Cecil but instead, the supervisor allowed Cecil to start taking vacation.?

Cantrell later learned about the vacation, and once again pressed the supervisor to fire her,?the indictment says. Once she ran out of vacation days in November of 2019, Cecil resigned.

Cantrell has not been charged with a crime. In an interview with WWL in March of this year, she denied having discussed Cecil with anyone else before firing her. She also denied that Cecil’s firing was a “favor” to anyone.

Sources familiar with the FBI's investigation of Cantrell say prosecutors appear to be trying to flesh out allegations against the mayor that contain multiple prongs —?to cast her as someone who repeatedly tried to use her powerful position for her own financial benefit.

Some observers at one point believed the mayor could face charges related to her relationship to Vappie.

Separately, in late 2022, it emerged that prosecutors were scrutinizing purchases made by Cantrell’s image consultant, Tanya Blunt Haynes, at high-end boutiques. Cantrell had been paying Haynes a flat monthly fee of $6,000 from her campaign account. A lawyer for Haynes later denied wrongdoing.

Farrell's other charges

Some federal corruption crimes carry a five-year statute of limitations.

In August, which marked five years since some of Farrell and Zeton's talks and meetings with Cantrell, legal observers speculated that the lack of charges against Farrell and the mayor might have signaled that the feds had given up.?

But some of the crimes detailed in Friday's indictment carried on after August of 2019, federal prosecutors say.

The scheme not only led to Farrell's own enrichment; it also reduced the value of New Orleanians' homes by "providing homeowners with properties that contained electrical systems installed and modified by unlicensed electircians whose work was not validly inspected," prosecutors wrote.

Farrell first came to the attention of federal authorities after a separate federal probe of Safety and Permits brought his firm into the feds’ crosshairs. Farrell and several co-conspirators pleaded guilty in federal court in 2021 to federal tax fraud charges. He served a period of home confinement.

In the course of plea negotiations over those charges, Farrell "took responsibility for IRS problems occurring nearly 10 years ago" and gave the feds information on his and Zeton's dealings with Cantrell, Simmons said in a statement.?

"The prosecution is now improperly utilizing this information against Mr. Farrell, alleging it was a bribe," Simmons said.

Former staff writer Gordon Russell contributed to this report.