The American Greed episode “New Orleans Shakedown” profiles C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor New Orleans who was in office during Hurricane Katrina (2005) and for another term after the storm. Nagin was commended by many (including the President of the United States, George W. Bush) for his role in the recovery of the NOLA. After serving his second term (term-limited by law he couldn’t run for a third), Nagin left office in 2010.
[Nagin self-published his 2011 book Katrina Secrets: Storms after the Storms]
In 2014, Nagin was convicted on 20 of 21 charges of “wire fraud, bribery, and money laundering related to bribes from city contractors before and after Hurricane Katrina.” He was sentenced to 10 years in jail and ordered to pay $585,000 in restitution and forfeiture. Nagin is serving his sentence at a prison camp, the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas. Nagin is scheduled to be released in 2023. American Greed airs Thursdays at 10pm on CNBC.
