A former director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his alleged role in a corrupt kickback scheme that involved a former wildlife commissioner and a contractor who ran the agency’s online hunter ed courses. Jack Montoucet, who served as Secretary of the LDWF from 2017 to 2023, was indicted May 21 on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Montoucet pleaded not guilty to all five charges Thursday, according to The Advocate.
Montoucet, who was appointed Secretary by Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2017, is just one of the high-ranking officials implicated in the corruption scandal. The charges had been expected since Montoucet resigned abruptly from his post in April 2023, just one day after the Times-Picayune identified him in a federal bribery scheme that had already ensnared Dusty Guidry, a former state wildlife commissioner. Guidry pleaded guilty in March of that year to bribery and conspiracy charges, admitting that he and a high-ranking LDWF official had accepted bribes from a contractor that provided the online courses for the state’s mandatory hunting and boating licenses.
The Department of Justice alleges in the federal indictment that between 2020 and 2022, Secretary Montoucet, Commissioner Guidry, “and others known and unknown to the grand jury” would accept kickbacks from Leonard C. Franques in exchange for awarding state contracts to Franques’ business, DGL1. The DOJ says the LLC was formed in 2020 to provide online courses to be used by LDWF.
“Montoucet and Guidry used their official positions at LDWF to award a state contract to DGL1 and under the contract, DGL1 would provide online hunters’ education and boaters’ education courses and the education to resolve LDWF citations,” the indictment alleges. “DGL1 would keep a portion of the revenue generated from providing those services, and in exchange, Franques agreed to provide, and Montoucet and Guidry agreed to accept, kickbacks and other things of value.”
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The DOJ further alleges that the state agency held back $122,507.96 from this contractual agreement, and that the co-conspirators had agreed to pay Montoucet this kickback as a “signing bonus” upon his retirement.
Montoucet was released on $15,000 bond Thursday and ordered to surrender his passport, along with any weapons he owns. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison for the conspiracy count, and up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud and money laundering counts, according to the DOJ.
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