A federal jury convicted ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Wednesday on charges that he accepted bribes worth more than $500,000, free trips and other gratuities from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work while he was in office.
Nagin, 57, was found guilty of 20 of the .
The only charge the jury found him not guilt of was the accusation that he’d accepted a $10,000 bribe from Rodney Williams, a former principal in Three Fold Consultants engineering firm, who in exchange for contracts. He was found guilty of accepting a $2,500 bribe from Williams.
Nagin is best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans, which he famously The 2005 storm caused a record-breaking to the devastated New Orleans.
The bribery charges against Nagin span from before the hurricane struck to right after.
Nagin, a Democrat who served two terms from 2002 to 2010, vehemently denied taking bribes throughout the trial. He said he was duty-bound to OK contracts to low bidders and denied that the contracts were tied in any way to money or favors.
“I’ve been at peace with this for a long time. I’m good,” Nagin said before the verdict was announced.
Each charged carries a sentence from 3 to 20 years, but how long he would serve is unclear and will depend on a pre-sentencing investigation and various sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date was set.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
