Political Illusions of the Cajun Mafia

Year 1 rent of $377 million comprised fixed building rent of $289.2 million with annual escalators
(subject to minimum property-level EBITDAR rent coverage of 1.8x), fixed land rent of $43.9 million,
and percentage rent component for the facilities of $43.9 million reset every 2 years equal to 4% of the
excess (if any) of the average net revenue for such facilities for the trailing two years over a baseline.
Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier upon his re-election year and during the
campaign periods used budgets from public funds to install over 20 billboards all featuring his image and
name in large font. Upon comparison on previous (non-campaign) years it may give an appearance of
self-promotion and self-interest of personal campaign reasons. The voluminous amount of
advertisements and significant increase in DA marketing spending during the campaign months of 2014
seems to extremely challenge ethical standards and perhaps cross into legal areas.
One of the billboards in particular seems to cross further ethical areas. On September 8, 2014, the
District Attorney’s office installed a billboard LA00 (Left hand/ eastbound reader). The order was placed
with J&J Outdoor Advertising and invoiced $1,200 to the District Attorney’s office on September 8, 2014
(Inv #JJ092014) (September 9, 2014 – October 5, 2014). On October 6, 2014, the same billboard the
rental changed to $6,254 and was then changed to pay L’Auberge casino instead. So, the cost to tax payers
increased over $5k every month for the same exact billboard. The L’Auberge casino does not typically
engage in the billboard rental industry. L’Auberge casino billboard rental price of $6,254 for one billboard
per month is suspiciously higher than real billboard company’s charges for billboard on Interstate 10.
Predatory Lending then Extortion Collections
Further questionable information is that the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s office assists
L’Auberge Casino with collection of casino loans by filing criminal charges of writing bad checks. By
CPDA prosecuting unsecured loans provided to gamblers for the purpose of gambling against a house
edge as criminal charges instead of debt collections may be a reason for the casino’s interest in the reelection
campaign of current District Attorney John DeRosier.
Pinnacle extends casino credit to approved customers in states where it is permitted following
background checks and investigations of creditworthiness. Accounts receivable are non-interest bearing
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