U.S. Attorney investigating Mandeville audit results

The Louisiana Legislative Audit recently released on the Mandeville city government’s inner workings and the Mandeville Police Department’s Citizen’s Service Fund has piqued the interest of federal investigators.

Auditor Steve Theriot announced Tuesday his office was subpoenaed in April by the United States attorney to surrender “all records, documents, files, correspondence and computerized records regarding” the Mandeville audit.

Although the audit wasn’t publicly released until Monday, officials said the U.S. Attorney’s office likely found out about the questionable activities surrounding the city and police department after Police Chief Tom Buell admitted earlier this year to taking money from the department’s fund to purchase Christmas gifts for Mayor Eddie Price.

The statement was released by the auditor after Price and other city officials stated in their response that “it is regrettable that the auditor has refused to provide requested details of certain allegations, has failed to provide copies of its work papers and declined to return the city’s original and legible public records.”

“I don’t know what their problem is,” Compliance Audit Director Dan Daigle said. “On July 14 we sat and talked to the mayor about the report and discussed original documents. They requested we return the documents, and on the 21st we returned electronic copies of those records.”

Price admitted they received a CD with a copy of the documents on it, but many of the files are illegible and unorganized.

But Daigle maintains they returned the documents back to the mayor in the condition they received them in.

“Some of the original documents weren’t legible,” Daigle said, adding even with their advanced scanning technology, the paperwork remained unreadable.

Last week, Buell admitted FBI officials had visited his house and questioned him, but he refused to provide any details on their visit. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten also refused to comment on any details of his office’s request for the Mandeville documents, nor could he confirm whether an investigation is ongoing.

After it was released, copies of the report were sent to the Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s office, but as of Wednesday, Price said he had not been contacted by any enforcement agency.

The investigation was first initiated after the auditor’s office received a tip from the Metropolitan Crime Commission that reported dubious dealings with the CSF. After beginning its investigation, the LLA decided to expand the investigation to include all the city government.

In addition to the CSF debacle, the 30-page report also alleges, among other things, several city department heads, including Price, misused their city-issued credit cards, city-issued vehicles and Fuelman cards.

The full report can be found at www.lla.state.la.us under audit reports.