Edwards Jury Calls for Forfeiture of Payoff Money

A day after former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards was convicted of racketeering, a jury on Wednesday recommended that he and three co-defendants forfeit nearly $2.6 million of the money they got from businessmen applying for riverboat casino licenses.

Edwards was convicted Tuesday with his son, Stephen Edwards, and three others of racketeering and fraud for schemes that took place during and after the elder Edwards left office in 1996. Bobby Johnson, one of the co-defendants, is not subject to the forfeiture order.

It is up to U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola to make a final decision on how much each should pay. Prosecutors had sought a forfeiture of $3.1 million.

In addition to the forfeiture, the former governor could be fined $4.5 million and sentenced to up to 250 years in prison.

“Depending on how the forfeiture verdict comes out, by selling some assets that I have and marshaling some assets, I should have close to enough to pay it,” Edwards said outside court.

Edwards was convicted of 17 of the 26 counts against him, including two racketeering charges.

He faces a June trial on federal charges that he helped rig a generous deal in 1996 for the head of a failed insurance company, which had been liquidated by the state.

Edwards served two terms as governor in the 1970s but left office because of a state ban on serving three straight terms. He was elected again in 1983 and in 1991.

The government’s star witness was former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., who testified that Edwards demanded and got a $400,000 cash payoff for help in getting DeBartolo a casino license in 1997.