After reading this piece on Raymond Reggie at Vodkapundit, research into Raymond Reggie's past turned up more than just one previous family scandal which have already cost taxpayers millions of dollars - and also involve Victoria Reggie, current wife of Senator Ted Kennedy (D) MA.
Reggie family patriarch, Judge Edmund M. Reggie, has a distinguished history which includes being a former Tulane Board Member, a "king-maker" in Louisiana Democrat circles, a convicted criminal whose misdeeds cost taxpayers millions, while also having them pay for the college educations of both Raymond and Victoria Reggie through the abuse of a scholarship fund when his own net worth was established at over $13 Million.
In 1992, Reggie was convicted of misapplication of funds of the Acadia Savings & Loan of Crowley, a thrift he founded in 1959 and which failed in 1987.
The Judge has also managed to disparage and attempt to censor a blog, though details suggest he isn't quite clear on what one really is.
In a March 10, 2005 telephone call to Dr. Bernofsky, retired judge Edmund M. Reggie, now residing in Lafayette, Louisiana, threatened a lawsuit if the content of this Web page at that time was not immediately removed.
Reggie, 78, who referred to the page as a "blog," claimed that portions of the text were "scurrilous, scandalous and libelous," that they held him up "to public ridicule," and were filled with "half-truths" and "lies." The former Crowley resident also informed Bernofsky that he was taping the nearly hour-long conversation
This is not the first time Judge Edmund Reggie has attempted to suppress publication of a story he did not like. In 1986, he and Monsignor Al Sigur led an advertisers' boycott against the Times of Acadiana after the Lafayette weekly carried an editorial by Richard Baudouin about sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy. Eventually, that situation was diffused through the intervention of Raymond Blanco, a vice president of the University of Louisiana in Lafayette and husband of the present governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Relatives of the Judge, including his two children received over 34 years of scholarship funding through public funds established to assist in defraying the college costs of the financially needy. Other, even more serious financial misdeeds include being convicted of misapplication of funds of the Acadia Savings & Loan of Crowley, a thrift he founded in 1959 and which failed in 1987.
That crime is alleged to have cost taxpayers over $40 Million dollars while his political connections allowed him to walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist.
The transactions allegedly contributed to the failure of the Louisiana Bank and Trust, which also failed in 1987. Reggie was board chairman of both institutions at the time. The questionable loans allegedly generated lucrative legal fees for Reggie's law firm, which also served as Acadia's general counsel
Initially, Reggie was charged in a 13-count indictment involving the transactions at Acadia S&L. He was acquitted on six counts in his first trial in June 1992. In his second trial three months later, Reggie was convicted on two charges, but U.S. District Judge John Shaw dismissed one of them. In July 1993, Reggie pleaded no-contest to another charge of misapplication of funds, and the remaining four charges were dismissed
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had also sought $40 million from Reggie and others in connection with the failure of the thrift. The debts ultimately were paid by U.S. taxpayers, according to federal officials. For his role in defrauding the savings institution and the public, Reggie faced up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Nevertheless, Judge Shaw sentenced him to only 120 days of home confinement and a $30,000 fine. Reggie was also temporarily suspended from the bar of the state Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court.
More information on resolution of that scandal can be found here.
U.S. District Judge John Shaw considered, but rejected, a recommendation by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., urging the court to impose $5.1 million in restitution in connection with the conviction and plea.
"A stiff restitution order is not only justly deserved for Reggie, but would also send a clear, deterrent signal that misapplication of bank funds will not be tolerated lightly by the courts," concluded a letter by FDIC senior counsel Robert W. Russell.
But Shaw refused, saying much of the evidence being cited by the government for the amounts was never introduced into the court record.
... Among the considerations that may have influenced Reggie's relatively light sentence were his close ties to prominent political figures that included Louisiana Governors Earl K. Long, Jimmie Davis, and Edwin W. Edwards, President and Mrs. John Kennedy, President and Mrs. Bill Clinton, and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.
In 1992, Senator Kennedy and Reggie's daughter, Victoria, a Washington, DC attorney specializing in banking law, were married on the 3rd of July at Kennedy's home in McLean, Virginia, both for the second time.
Additionally, Reggie's oldest son, Ed Michael Reggie was "sued by City Savings Bank and Trust Co. of DeRidder, La. in a dispute involving $6 million in losses from loans he made while president of the bank from August 1980 until his resignation in March 1982".
Judge Reggi owned the bank at that time in conjunction with multiply-convicted felon, Herman K. Beebe.
Federal officials alleged that Beebe caused the failure of at least 17 banks in Louisiana and Texas, costing taxpayers more than $2 billion. The two federal banking agencies, which had sought $26.5 million from Beebe in bankruptcy court, settled in 1995 for just $200,000 after determining that his assets were virtually worthless.
Yet the a Tulane biography apparently still credits the eldest Reggie son for having set several bank earnings and deposit growth records, among other accomplishments.
Ed Michael Reggie went on to build a successful career in the health management field, and in 2004 he received a Champion of Public Health award from Tulane University School of Public Health, where he is an adjunct faculty member and advisor to the provost.
It would appear as though both Raymond Reggie and Kennedy wife, Victoria might justifiably claim a long history of family scandal, crime and abuse that has cost American taxpayers millions and gone mostly unpunished due to political influence which runs to the highest levels of government. Both Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Ted Kennedy and other top politico's have been linked with the Reggi family in the past.
Post linked to the the Beltway Traffic Jam.
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