Louisiana Voice

At least one of the 11 board members of the failed Central Progressive Bank of Lacombe was unaware that a $5,000 campaign contribution had been made in his name to Gov. Bobby Jindal during his successful run for governor in 2007, LouisianaVoice has learned. He added that he was sure none of the other board members knew of the contributions made in their names as well.

Richard Blossman, Jr., of Lacombe is accused in a federal bill of information of funneling $55,000 through the Lacombe bank into Jindal’s campaign.

Central Progressive, after being designated as a “troubled bank” last year, was taken over in November by First NBC Bank of New Orleans.

The federal Bill of Information says that Blossman, while CEO of Central Progressive Bank, gave each of his 11 board members a $5,000 bonus. In reality none of the $5,000 bonus payments ever went to the board members, according to Raphael Goyeneche, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission.

“The defendant well knew the ‘bonus’ was to funnel illegal political contributions and was not a bonus, as he caused it to be inscribed in the board minutes,” prosecutors said.

“That is a felony,” Goyeneche said.

Immediately after the bonuses were announced by Blossman, federal prosecutors say 11 checks of $5,000 each were sent to Jindal’s campaign in the names of each of the individual board members.

The limit for political contributions is $5,000. But with all of the board members “donating” their $5,000 of Central Progressive Bank funds, the donation came to $55,000.

Additionally, the Louisiana Board of Ethics last month said Jindal received $40,000 in campaign contributions from River Birch, Inc. when the company formed six “straw man entities” to launder illegal donations to Jindal.

River Birch Landfill had its offices in Gretna raided by federal agents in September of 2010 after landing a controversial $160 million garbage disposal contract with Jefferson Parish in 2009.

Curiously, Timmy Teepell, who ran Jindal’s 2007 campaign, said the governor would not return any of the tainted $95,000.

“We accept every contribution in good faith and in accordance with the law,” he sniffed.

So, while there are laws against receiving stolen goods, and even as Louisiana legislators fret over the selling of art by Angola death row inmates, there apparently are no restrictions on politicians keeping laundered campaign money.

When asked if Blossman received anything in return for the donations, Teepell said, “No, absolutely not. Everybody who donates to our campaign gets the same thing and that is good government.”

When LouisianaVoice attempted to question the board members, no one answered phone calls at seven of the numbers called, two numbers had been disconnected and the first board member contacted, Raymond Fontaine of Slidell, said he had no comment.

At another, LouisianaVoice at first reached Douglas Ferrer, Sr., father of board member Douglas Ferrer, Jr. The elder Ferrer referred to Central Progressive as “that no-good bank” and added that his son was unaware of the contribution made in his name.

When contacted, Douglas Ferrer, Jr. of Lacombe at first explained that he had been involved in litigation against the bank and that the settlement agreement contained a non-disclosure clause that prohibited him from commenting. When told that his father had said he knew nothing of the campaign contribution, he then said, “My dad doesn’t lie. You can take that for what it’s worth.” Given the fact his father had already commented, the younger Ferrer finally said, “I think none of the others were aware of the contributions.”

Besides Fontaine, Ferrer and Blossman, the other eight board members who ostensibly made $5,000 campaign contributions to Jindal, all on April 6, 2007, according to Jindal’s campaign finance report, included Welton Brumfield, Jr., address unknown, Charles Law Ponder of Kentwood, Edward Amar, Jr., of Tickfaw, Brandon Faciane of Slidell, Ralph Menetre of Covington, Jim Venezia, Sr., of Pearl River, Henry Powell, Jr. of Lacombe and Mark Perrilloux of Ponchatoula.

The Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions, which provided the names of the board members pursuant to a public records request by CNS, noted that Menetre was elected to the board on January 29, 2007 and that Perrilloux left the board on December 10, 2007.

Jindal paid a $2,500 ethics fine less than a month after taking office in 2008 for campaign violations when his campaign failed to timely disclose more than $100,000 spent on his behalf by the state Republican Party.