Admitting that he lied about having tenants in a New Orleans East apartment building so as to avoid paying back a Road Home loan, former state Sen. Wesley Bishop pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal crime.
Bishop spoke in a low voice as he entered his guilty plea in a federal courtroom, two months after he was charged with a single count of making false statements to a federal agency.
He faces a prison sentence of up to five years when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry at an April 21 hearing.
Bishop is the first area politician to be convicted of a crime since a federal jury found Patrick Dejean, a justice of the peace in Jefferson Parish, guilty of 16 corruption-related counts in February.
Tuesday's short rearraignment hearing wrapped up a federal probe of the prominent 52-year-old New Orleans Democrat that once encompassed further allegations.
For months, federal investigators probed whether Bishop committed payroll fraud related to his job as an associate chancellor at Southern University at New Orleans. Bishop ultimately paid the university back at least $20,000 for sick pay he claimed on days when he was serving as a legislator in Baton Rouge.
Federal authorities are looking into allegations that state Sen. Wesley Bishop violated the terms of a Road Home grant he received to renovate…
In the end, federal investigators snared him on a separate allegation of financial wrongdoing.
In June 2012, Bishop received a $188,000 Road Home loan to help him restore a fourplex he owned at 10841 Roger Drive. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program was supposed to help return to the market small rental properties that were damaged in Hurricane Katrina.
Under the terms of the arrangement, if Bishop kept low-income tenants in each unit for 10 years, the government would forgive the loan.
But Bishop failed to submit proof that he was renting the units in 2013 and 2014, according to a court document known as a “factual basis” that was filed with his guilty plea. In August 2014, a state agency administering the federally backed program sent Bishop an alert that his loan was under review.
The requests for information grew more urgent with emails from an attorney for Louisiana’s Division of Administration in February 2017 and April 2017. The latter warned Bishop that he had days to send proof of tenants before a notice of default was issued.
Soon afterward, Bishop emailed the attorney files purporting to show proof that the rental units had been occupied.
But Bishop knew the supposed proof was bogus. In the court document he signed, he admitted that “his representations were false and material, and he intended for them to mislead HUD.”
State Sen. Wesley Bishop, a Democrat from New Orleans who recently announced he would not seek re-election after eight years in the Legislatur…
Under the terms of a plea agreement with U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser’s office that was finalized on Tuesday, prosecutors agreed not to seek any other charges in connection with the Road Home loan.
It remains unclear whether Bishop ever had any tenants in the property. The building hasn't had a working water meter since 2013, according to the Sewerage & Water Board.
Guidry, the judge, said Bishop might have to pay up to $188,000 in restitution.
The only moment of drama during Tuesday’s hearing came when Guidry asked Bishop if he was pleading guilty because he was in fact guilty of the allegations against him.
Bishop, himself a lawyer, paused and whispered with his defense attorney, Harry Rosenberg, before Guidry repeated the question.
“Yes, your honor,” Bishop said.
He left the courthouse without commenting.
Bishop did not seek re-election to the Legislature last fall. State Sen. Jimmy Harris was sworn in this month to replace him.
