Restaurateur Fouad Zeton, the former owner of a Lower Garden District mansion that played host to a slew of New Orleans political fundraising events, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday afternoon to a single wire fraud charge, admitting his role in an insurance-fraud scheme and implicating a New Orleans police officer in the process.
Zeton, clad in a dark suit, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown, who will sentence him Aug. 17. He faces a maximum of five years in prison.
In court documents, Zeton admitted he filed bogus insurance claims on a number of paintings he reported stolen from his Lakeview home. In doing so, prosecutors allege, he had help from a New Orleans police officer who pretended not to know Zeton but did. That officer, according to a summary of the case signed by Zeton, filed a false police report in 2019 that backed Zeton’s claim that the allegedly stolen paintings had a combined value of $128,500.
In fact, the paintings had not been stolen and were worth substantially less than that, prosecutors say.
The officer is not named in the court documents, but The Times-Picayune has confirmed that he is Christian Claus, a former lawyer from Nevada. Claus has been assigned to desk duty pending a federal investigation, according to the NOPD. He has not been charged.
A summary of the case filed into the record Wednesday, signed by Zeton, indicates that the scheme was initially proposed by Claus. His lawyer, Billy Gibbens,...
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