(CNN) -- Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who
captured the drama of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with an "SOS" call to
the nation, was indicted Friday on 21 federal corruption charges,
including bribery, money laundering, fraud and filing false tax returns.
Nagin allegedly defrauded
the city through "a bribery and kickback scheme" in which he received
checks, cash, wire transfers, personal services and free travel from
businessmen seeking favorable treatment, the 25-page federal indictment
says.
Among the conspiracy
charges is an accusation that Nagin awarded "no bid" work to a city
contractor who provided "concealed and direct campaign monies" to Nagin,
the indictment says.
Read the indictment
Nagin allegedly received bribes from city contractors in the amounts of $60,000, $2,250, $50,000, $10,000, the indictment says.
He also is accused of receiving a bribe in the form of granite inventory from a city construction contractor.
Nagin faces nine counts
of honest service wire fraud, alleging he received nine wire transfers
amounting to $12,500 each that were bribes or kickback payoffs from the
same city construction contractor in 2010 and 2011, the indictment says.
In his 2005 tax return --
the same year that Katrina hit the Gulf coast -- Nagin allegedly filed a
false tax return claiming his income was $156,278, the indictment says.
He is also accused of
filing false returns for 2006 listing his income at $170,364, for 2007
with an income of $31,163, and for 2008 with a $143,852 income, the
indictment said.
In 2005, as Katrina
became the single most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history,
Nagin took center stage on behalf of victims when he excoriated the slow
pace of federal and state relief efforts, even using profanities.
Nagin, who is black,
urged the reconstruction of a "chocolate New Orleans," adding, "You
can't have New Orleans no other way." He later apologized, saying
everyone is welcome to the city.
The hurricane slammed
the Gulf coast in 2005 and killed 1,833 people, directly or indirectly,
in five states. Damages totaled $108 billion, according to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
Current New Orleans
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who won election in 2010 when term limits kept
Nagin out of the race, said the charges mark "a sad day for the city of
New Orleans."
"Today's indictment of
former Mayor Ray Nagin alleges serious violations of the public's
trust," Landrieu said in a prepared statement. "Public corruption cannot
and will not be tolerated."
In 2005, then New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin took center stage on behalf of victims when he excoriated the slow pace of federal and state relief efforts.
