Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
Lafayette businessman Leonard Franques was sentenced Tuesday to 12 months in federal prison in connection with a kickback scheme involving the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Franques pleaded guilty in January 2024 as part of a plea agreement to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. When FBI agents raided his home and Oil Center business in October of 2021, Franques and his wife, Michelle, agreed to cooperate. Several times he agreed to being recorded while meeting with co-conspirators in the LDWF scheme as well as a bribery scheme involving the pretrial intervention program operated by the district attorney's office of the 15th Judicial District in Lafayette. Gary Haynes, a former assistant district attorney, was found guilty by a jury in September on six federal counts. His sentencing is in December. Another co-conspirator, Dustry Guidry, a contract employee with the Lafayette District Attorney's Office pretrial program, pleaded guilty to three federal charges and was sentenced to 48 months in prison. Franques also was involved in the pretrial intervention bribery scheme but was not charged. His wife has not been charged for involvement with either bribery scheme. After the sentencing, friends and family waited for Franques in the lobby of the federal courthouse in Lafayette. They eventually exited the courthouse, shielded by a large umbrella, walking past waiting news cameras. While that took place, Leonard Franques and his attorneys exited from a set of doors on the other side of the courthouse, walking to another vehicle waiting in the street. As reporters attempted to photograph him, a member of the party again used a large umbrella to shield him and keep reporters away. Federal Judge David Joseph said Franques must report to prison by Jan. 6.
