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LOUISIANA RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

ATTORNEY'S OFFICE OF LOUISIANA: Former Investigator with District Attorney’s Office for the 22nd Judicial District Sentenced to 3 Years Probation after Pleading Guilty to Making False Statements to Federal Authorities

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U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana issued the following announcement on June 12.

U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that JEFFERY B. MONTALBANO, age 58, a resident of Mandeville, Louisiana, was sentenced yesterday by United States District Judge Susie Morgan to three years of probation after previously pleading guilty to making false statements to federal authorities, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ' 1001(a)(2).

According to court documents, MONTALBANO was the president of an entity called “JBM OIL Sales” and from about February 2013 to April 2018 worked for the Office of the District Attorney for the 22nd Judicial District as an investigator in the domestic violence unit. While employed as an investigator, MONTALBANO was responsible for collecting and preparing evidence in domestic violence investigations and trials and coordinating witness and victim testimony.

On January 23, 2018, MONTALBANO met with a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 3601 Highway 190, Mandeville, Louisiana, within the Eastern District of Louisiana as part of an investigation the FBI was conducting into approximately $20,000 paid by a defendant in a criminal matter pending in the 22nd Judicial District (“Defendant A”) to MONTALBANO’S associate (“Person 1”). The investigation concerned the nature of the payment and whether MONTALBANO took official action to benefit Defendant A in an ongoing criminal matter in exchange for receiving the payment.

During the interview, MONTALBANO made numerous materially false statements and omissions related to the investigation in response to questions posed to him by FBI Special Agents. In particular, MONTALBANO said that neither he nor Person 1 had ever received money from Defendant A and that he had no idea federal agents visited the Office of the District Attorney for the 22nd Judicial District to investigate the allegations that MONTALBANO had received money from Defendant A in exchange for using his influence to benefit Defendant A. In truth, however, MONTALBANO knew that Defendant A gave Person 1 two checks in the amount of $10,000 each on November 22, 2013 and December 30, 2013, that Person 1 gave MONTALBANO checks for half the money he received from Defendant A on November 26, 2013, and December 30, 2013, and that FBI Special Agents had interviewed MONTALBANO’s colleagues on October 8, 2015. The false statements impeded FBI Special Agents from determining whether (1) payments from Defendant A were in exchange for beneficial action for Defendant A and (2) MONTALBANO communicated truthfully with his supervisors.

U.S. Attorney Strasser praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg was in charge of the prosecution.

Original source can be found here.

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