New Orleans - Former City Technology Chief Greg Meffert has just been indicted by a federal grand jury. Meffert's wife, Linda, was also indicted Federal prosecutor Richard Pickens gave the indictment to Federal Magistrate Louis Moore.
Also indicted is former city hall technology vendor Mark St. Pierre.
The three face 63 federal corruption charges, including bribery, fraud, making false statements to federal investigators and failure to pay taxes.
Meffert helped St. Pierre receive millions of dollars in contracts in exchange for $860,000 in kickbacks. Those kickbacks included cash, membership dues, credit card charges and several other services, according to court documents.
Meffert's wife allegedly lied to federal agents about work she had done for a company under St. Pierre. She told investigators she was paid $38,000 for accounting work she did for St. Pierre. Agents say she never did any of the work.
Jurors in a civil trial this week found in favor of two tech companies who claimed Meffert and others in the tech office swiped their technology then conspired with dell to sell it. It was a $16 million judgment.
A federal case loomed over Meffert's head and last Summer Meffert's lawyer Randy Smith disclosed that the U.S. Attorney's Office notified Meffert that he was a target of a federal investigation parallel to the civil case on the crime camera program.
One possible issue in the federal case is Meffert's close relationship with Veracent owner Mark St. Pierre. Veracent and Dell sold camera's to the city in 2006
St. Pierre also owns Netmethods, a company Meffert consulted for while he worked at City Hall.
Meffert charged more than $130,000 to a Netmethods credit card which included trips for Mayor Ray Nagin and his family.
Meffert is due in federal court on Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. to answer to the charges.
