Bribery, fraud cases multiply

0 Comments | USA TODAY, October, 2007 | by Rick Jervis

NEW ORLEANS -- The number of public corruption cases here has more than quintupled, sparked by a federal crackdown on post-Katrina wrongdoings and a billboard campaign urging residents to expose crooked politics and payoffs, the FBI said.

Federal statistics show that 171 people in the metropolitan area have been indicted on public corruption charges from 2003 through mid-September of this year, said Howard Schwartz, supervisory special agent for public corruption in the FBI's New Orleans office. More than 80% were convicted or pleaded guilty to charges including bribery and fraud.

The upsurge in indictments is partly the result of corruption fueled by the enticement of billions of federal and state dollars flooding the region after Hurricane Katrina in 2005,...