Former Head of Louisiana Wildlife Pleads Guilty to ‘Conspiring to Defraud the United States’

Jack Montoucet, the previous head of the Louisiana Division of Wildlife and Fisheries, pled guilty this week to a federal conspiracy cost stemming from a corrupt kickback scheme — one which additionally concerned a former wildlife commissioner and a contractor who ran the company’s on-line schooling programs. In asserting the responsible plea Tuesday, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace stated Montoucet had “conspir[ed] to defraud the USA” by soliciting and accepting kickback funds in alternate for awarding state contracts.

Investigators with the FBI and the IRS Legal Investigation Unit labored alongside the Division of Justice on the sweeping bribery case. The opposite co-conspirators are already serving jail time, in line with News 15.

“The residents of Louisiana deserve and demand honesty and integrity from these entrusted with public workplace, together with after they contract for providers on behalf of our Louisiana communities,” U.S Lawyer Zachary A. Keller stated in a statement released by the DOJ. “Officeholders like Mr. Montoucet who abuse that belief undermine confidence in authorities and the general public contracting workplace, and our Workplace will proceed to work with our legislation enforcement companions to prosecute these abuses and see that offenders face justice.”

The 78-year-old former director, who served as LDWF Secretary from 2017 to 2023, was indicted in Could 2025. Courtroom paperwork present that prosecutors charged Montoucet with one depend of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., three counts of wire fraud, and one depend of cash laundering. Montoucet pleaded not responsible to all 5 fees in June, in line with The Advocate. 

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Keller advised reporters Tuesday, nevertheless, that they reached a plea deal through which 4 of the costs had been dropped in alternate for Montoucet pleading responsible to the conspiracy cost. Mountoucet now faces as much as 5 years in federal jail and a wonderful of as much as $250,000. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in June.

“We’re going to be advocating for jail time,” Keller stated throughout a press convention Tuesday. “We’d by no means enter right into a plea deal, we’d by no means have a change of plea like we simply had, if we weren’t glad that we had been reaching a end result that was simply, that was applicable, and that was going to be serving our group.”

Though the official indictment towards Montoucet was handed down in 2025, it had been anticipated since April 2023, when he abruptly stepped down from his submit at LDWF. His resignation got here simply in the future after the Times-Picayune recognized him as being implicated within the bribery scheme that had already ensnared Dusty Guidry, a former state wildlife commissioner. Guidry pleaded responsible that March to bribery and conspiracy fees, admitting that he and a high-ranking LDWF official had accepted bribes from a contractor who supplied the net programs for searching and boating licenses. Guidry was later sentenced to 4 years in jail.

The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace broke down the corruption scheme in its announcement Tuesday, explaining that Montoucet, in his function as Secretary, agreed to steer a state contract to Leonard C. Franques’ firm, DGL1, LLC, to supply on-line hunter and boater schooling programs. In alternate, Montoucet acquired a kickback for one-third of the revenue that resulted from the contract, with the opposite two-thirds divided between Guidry and Franques. The co-conspirators additionally labored collectively to hide and disguise the kickbacks, prosecutors stated, “agreeing that Franques would maintain Montoucet’s portion till after he’d departed LDWF.”

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Based on the federal indictment, the state company had already held again greater than $122,000 from this contractual settlement. It additionally famous “different issues of worth” that Montoucet and Guidry had agreed to simply accept in alternate for steering the contracts to Franques’ firm.

“If all went as deliberate, [Mr. Montoucet] would have continued to get funds totaling within the thousands and thousands lengthy after he retired from Wildlife and Fisheries,” FBI Particular Agent in Cost Jonathan Tapp said throughout Tuesday’s press convention. “Fortunately there are nonetheless good folks on the market who reached out to the FBI and native legislation enforcement to report this criminal activity.”