A St. Tammany Parish man has found himself enmeshed in legal snares, facing charges for bribery and wire fraud—as detailed in a bill of information from Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson. Kentrell Mahoney Scott, 39, has been accused of using his position as a public official to solicit a $300 bribe, meddling with a supervisee’s GPS monitoring in breach of his role and crucially, against the law. This information comes courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, which released details of the case yesterday.
Scott’s tactics stretched beyond bribery to the realm of wire fraud, where he hawked unauthorized brake tags and temp tags via Facebook, urging potential buyers to contact him directly, but not only did he push those illicit wares on social media, he also met with these buyers face-to-face to seal these illegal deals. Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson has relayed that the guilt of the defendant must be "proven beyond a reasonable doubt" despite these charges framing Scott's actions in a decidedly dubious light, as mentioned on the U.S. Attorney's Office website.
In an alleged attempt to siphon more from government funds, Scott also stands accused of making fraudulent claims for the CARES Act Funded Unemployment Insurance Program—underreporting wages, feigning unemployment, all to pump up his pocket with insurance benefits he wasn't rightly due. For the bribery charge, if convicted, Scott could be cast away for as many as 15 years behind bars, along with hefty fines and supervised release, with similar grave consequences for each of the wire fraud counts he faces, particularly up to 20 years of imprisonment for each.
The diligent efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in unearthing these purported acts of corruption earned the admiration of the Acting U.S. Attorney the case prosecute duty falls to Assistant U.S. Attorney Andre J. Lagarde of the Public Integrity Unit.
