Third man indicted in prison agency fraud investigation

• By BILL LODGE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 22, 2009 - Page: 4B

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The continuing federal investigation of Louisiana’s prison-supply agency has resulted in mail fraud charges that could put a Lake Charles fertilizer contractor in prison for the rest of his life, prosecutors announced Monday in Baton Rouge.

Wallace E. “Gene” Fletcher, 67, faces 17 counts of mail fraud that carry a possible maximum prison sentence of 340 years, U.S. Attorney David R. Dugas, of Baton Rouge, and U.S. Attorney Donald W. Washington, of Lafayette, said in a written statement.

Fletcher is accused of defrauding Louisiana taxpayers of $177,225 by over-billing a state agency, Prison Enterprises, or by “providing Prison Enterprises with cheaper fertilizer than ordered and paid for,” according to an indictment.

His Lake Charles attorney, Maurice Tynes, said, “Mr. Fletcher won’t have a comment.”

“But I’m satisfied that he’s going to be deemed innocent.”

The chemical formulas for fertilizer are sometimes complicated, Tynes said, adding they appear to “have confused the federal government people somewhat.

“The Prison Enterprises system has never had a complaint with Mr. Fletcher,” Tynes said.

Fletcher is the third person charged this year in the continuing investigation by the FBI, the Louisiana Inspector General’s Office, and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture Brand Commission.

In July, retired Louisiana State Penitentiary horse trainer Julius H. “Buddy” Truax pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud in the sale of state-owned horses.

Truax, 66, of Walker, signed a plea agreement in which he promised to cooperate with federal authorities.

On Sept. 10, former Prison Enterprises Director James H. Leslie, 58, of Marthaville, was indicted on federal mail fraud charges involving the sale of state-owned horses.

Leslie has yet to be sentenced for his 2006 guilty plea to a federal charge of witness tampering in an investigation of state-purchased fertilizer.

James M. LeBlanc, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said Monday that Leslie left Prison Enterprises in 2006.