64°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

State and feds investigating John Paul Funes separately

5 years 1 month 1 week ago Friday, March 15 2019 Mar 15, 2019 March 15, 2019 5:35 PM March 15, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- Federal investigators are looking into embezzlement allegations at Our Lady of the Lake Foundation following revelations that $810,000 went missing.

Results from an audit that were released Thursday by Our Lady of the Lake indicated the gift cards, charter flights payments to individuals and other inappropriate spending was discovered. Some of that money was even tied to LSU. They said the former President of the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation John Paul Funes is responsible and acted alone.

"We have crimes against the federal statutes and crimes against the state," District Attorney Hillar Moore said. "There is no double jeopardy in that regard. It does make things more complicated so that would be one of the main reasons we would meet to see how to proceed."

Our Lady of the Lake said it intends to seek restitution from Funes.

"Surely jail time is a possibility along with restitution and other fines and conditions that a court could impose," Moore said. "Everything is open now and it's going to be up to a judge to determine if it gets to that position what is the appropriate sentence."

Funes was fired from his job last November. Next week, prosecutors expect to meet with Our Lady of the Lake to get details from the audit. Moore said a game plan will be drawn up on how to proceed whether it be separately with the state and feds each doing their own prosecution or turned over to single entity.

Funes' attorney and the US Attorney's Office won't confirm or deny an investigation.

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days