Former assistant district attorney indicted on bribery, money laundering conspiracy, and other felony charges

Date: Sept. 18, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Lafayette, LA - A federal grand jury in Lafayette, Louisiana returned an indictment today charging a former Louisiana assistant district attorney with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, using his cell phone in furtherance of bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and obstruction of justice.

According to court documents, Gary Haynes of Lafayette, conspired with Dusty Guidry, Leonard Franques, and others to solicit bribes and kickbacks and to accept things of value while Haynes was an assistant district attorney in the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office (the D.A.'s Office). According to the indictment, Haynes oversaw the D.A.'s Office's Pretrial Intervention (PTI) program-a program that offered an alternative to criminal prosecution for certain criminal offenders. Haynes approved defendants to participate in the program and then directed them to take classes from Franques's companies. Those defendants paid money to take classes through Franques's companies to complete the program and obtain dismissal of the criminal charges against them from Haynes. Haynes, Guidry, and Franques agreed that Haynes would receive kickbacks in exchange for accepting people into the PTI program, directing those people to Franques's companies, and then dismissing the charges against the people who enrolled in and paid for the courses that Franques's companies provided.

Further, according to the charges in the indictment, Haynes and his co-conspirators discussed several ways to conceal the nature of the money that Haynes would receive from the kickback scheme, including having Haynes reactivate a defunct company during the conspiracy to hide the proceeds from the kickbacks. Finally, Haynes directed a coconspirator to alter, destroy, and conceal documents and records to prevent their availability in a future proceeding.

Haynes is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, two counts of using his cell phone in aid of bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and obstruction of justice. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison.

Franques pleaded guilty on Jan. 12, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Guidry pleaded guilty on March 23, 2023, to two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Both Guidry and Franques are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 24, 2024.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, and U.S. Attorney Brandon Bonaparte Brown for the Western District of Louisiana made the announcement.

The IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and FBI New Orleans Field Office are investigating the case. Trial Attorneys Steven Loew and Trevor Wilmot of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Luke Walker and John Nickel for the Western District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.

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