The hits just keep on coming for embattled Kenner City Councilman, and Jefferson Parish Council candidate, Dominick Impastato.
Despite his attempts to distance himself from his longtime friendship with Jefferson Parish Sexual Predator-In-Chief Mike Yenni, his use of Yenni's campaign manager, Jefferson Parish's Minister of Propaganda Greg Buisson, and having access to Yenni's campaign donors, Impastato can't seem to get out of his own way.
Rumors are running rampant on social media regarding multiple real estate transactions between Impastato and a convicted drug dealer and money launderer. While we can't confirm those rumors, we can discuss another case that "Mr. Fresh Ideas" would rather you didn't know about.
Impastato is representing former Interim Kenner Councilman-At-Large Brian Brennan in a case involving the theft of over $500,000 from a Mississippi company, Southland Express LLC, owned by a husband and wife.
Like Impastato, Brennan also has significant ties to Yenni who appointed him to Yenni's 2010 Kenner Mayoral transition team after Brennan was defeated in his bid for the Kenner City Council District 5 seat. Impastato was also a member of Yenn's transition team.
In 2016, at the urging of Yenni, Brennan was appointed Interim Councilman-At-Large after Keith Conley resigned to join the Yenni Administration in Jefferson Parish government. Brennan served until a Special Election was called and Tom Willmott was elected to serve the remainder of Conley's term.
An interesting side note to Brennan's appointment to the Kenner City Council was the fact that he actually got appointed twice to the same position. Brennan was appointed before Conley's resignation letter was sent to the Secretary of State. Because of this procedural error, Brennan's initial appointment was rescinded and the City Council needed to vote for his appointment at a later meeting. Impastato was on the City Council and voted to approve Brennan's appointment.
Brennan, who has been actively campaigning for Impastato, is rumored to be interested in seeking the Kenner City Council District 5 seat currently held by Impastato should Dominick be successful in his Jefferson Parish Council race against State Senator Danny Martiny.
According to court documents obtained by ClickJefferson, in 2008 Southland Express LLC signed an agreement with Metro Rediscount Company, Inc. (a Louisiana Corporation) whereby Metro Rediscount would provide factoring services to Southland Express.
Factoring is a commonly used practice of advancing funds based upon purchase orders or invoices. A company like Southland Express sells its invoices to the "Factor" at a discount, getting the cash now. The "Factor", in this case, Metro Rediscount, would then collect the payments due on the invoices as they became due.
The factoring agreement between Southland and Metro Rediscount went on for several years and Metro Rediscount billed Southland's clients and collected payments.
Then, things changed.
Between May 2011 and February 2012, Metro Rediscount wrote worthless checks to Southland Express for a total of $527,101.57 while continuing to collect payments from Southland Express clients in Jefferson Parish.
According to the Louisiana Secretary of State, at the time, Metro Rediscount listed two officers on their incorporation papers: Frank Adolf (President/Officer) and Brian Brennan (Vice President/Secretary/Officer).
After repeatedly getting bounced checks from Metro Rediscount, and repeatedly being told that Metro Rediscount would make things right (which never happened), Southland Express contacted their Jefferson Parish clients and told them to stop remitting payments to Metro Rediscount and pay Southland directly.
In the court documents, Southland Express's owners claim that they had several conversations with Adolf and Brennan regarding the $527k that Southland was owed. Adolf kept promising to pay Southland.
In fact, Adolf sent one payment of $15,000.
Guess what? That check bounced too.
The owners of Southland Express also had several conversations with Brennan, who just passed the buck claiming that Adolf would deal with the Southland Express owners directly.
With no actual payments forthcoming, Southland Express filed a lawsuit against Metro Rediscount, Adolf and Brennan seeking the $527,101.57 plus interest, court costs and attorney fees.
Subsequent to the Southland Express transactions, Brennan resigned as Vice President of Metro Rediscount and is now an insurance agent. Adolf later dissolved Metro Rediscount Company, Inc., added a new partner and is operating as Metro Rediscount of Kenner II, LLC.
What's even more interesting about this case is Impastato's involvement in representing Brennan.
Now, don't get me wrong - everyone is entitled to proper legal representation and, since Martiny is also an Attorney, I'm sure that over the years he may have represented an unsavory character or two himself.
However, according to his attorney page, Impastato's primary area of practice is "Product Liability Litigation", and not representing someone accused of stealing $500k and causing financial hardship to a married couple.
Further muddying the water is the fact that Impastato began representing Brennan in this case while both were serving on the Kenner City Council together. In addition, none of the details of Brennan's involvement in the Southland/Metro Rediscount court case were disclosed to the people of Kenner or members of the City Council prior to the vote on Brennan's appointment to the Council.
As an Attorney and personal friend, Impastato must have been aware of Brennan's involvement in the lawsuit. Did Impastato purposely work with Brennan to conceal that from the Kenner City Council and the public?
And why would Impastato allow someone like Brennan, accused of being Vice President of a company that stole over $500k from a company and then tried to conceal the theft by writing worthless checks and changing the company name, into Impastato's inner circle?
I don't know about you but that sounds like the same good ole boy politics as usual to me and not the "Fresh Ideas" slogan on signs that Impastato is littering Kenner with. .
But, since all we've heard from Impastato on the campaign trail is a series of negative attacks on Martiny (despite Impastato's pledge to focus on his achievements), why am I not surprised.
The Southland Express/Metro Rediscount lawsuit is scheduled for a January court date. Since qualifying for the March Kenner elections is in early January, chances are that Brennan and Impastato will try to keep concealing the lawsuit from the people of Kenner and get the court date moved back until after the election.
Best friends with a Sexual Predator and an accused thief.
"Fresh Ideas" or politics as usual in Kenner?
