Karen Duhon pleads not guilty to federal charges, released from custody

Former Capital Management Consultants’ bookkeeper Karen Duhon pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges relating to an alleged-multi-million theft scheme and was released from custody until her next court date.

Duhon, 64, was arraigned on charges of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Lafayette.

She pleaded not guilty and Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst released Duhon on personal recognizance, meaning she didn’t have to pay bail, according to documents provided by the U.S. attorney. She is not allowed to apply for a passport.

A telephone scheduling conference is set for 10 a.m. Jan. 31 before Whitehurst for the purpose of selecting trial and pretrial conference dates.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Dustin Talbot confirmed that he is representing Duhon on the federal charges.

On Dec. 13, 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Duhon and accused her of stealing over $3 million from the Morgan City-based company during a 15-year period.

The indictment alleges that Duhon, who was the bookkeeper at Capital Management Consultants Inc. in Morgan City, stole more than $3 million from January 1999 through March 2014.

Capital Management is an investment holdings company founded by the late Peter V. Guarisco in 1982. Guarisco died in 2005. The Guarisco family and company officials alleged in a December 2014 lawsuit that former company CPA James Scott Tucker was the mastermind behind a scheme to steal up to $30 million from the Guariscos possibly since the early 1980s.

The Guarisco family discovered the alleged theft after Tucker’s January 2014 death.

Duhon was first arrested in connection with the case on July 29, 2014. Members of the Guarisco family were disappointed that Duhon was released Tuesday from court custody without having to pay bail, said Capital Management spokesman Marwan Mohey-El-Dien, who is married to one of Peter Guarisco’s daughters, Laura Guarisco.

“We’re hoping that after 4 1/2 years we’re finally going to be able to start getting justice,” Mohey-El-Dien said.

The federal indictment alleges that Duhon wrote fraudulent checks to herself, which were drawn on CMCI’s bank account and deposited those checks into bank accounts owned by her and her husband, U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph said in a news release.

In order to conceal these fraudulent payments from the CMCI account, Duhon made false accounting entries into CMCI’s records. During this time, Duhon also assisted certain family members with their personal finances. She used funds from a family member’s personal brokerage account at Oppenheimer and Co. to make payments on her American Express accounts. As a result of Duhon’s fraudulent activities, she embezzled $3,194,920, Joseph said.

If convicted, Duhon faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, restitution, forfeiture and a $250,000 fine. The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas F. Phillips is prosecuting the case. The charges in the indictment are only accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In September 2017, Duhon’s husband, Armond Duhon, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty in June 2017 in Louisiana’s 16th Judicial District Court on charges in connection with the case. Judge Keith Comeaux of the 16th district sentenced Armond Duhon after finding him guilty of 206 counts of theft over $1,500, 15 counts of theft $500-$1,500, two counts of money laundering and one count of racketeering in the case. Armond Duhon had waived his trial by jury and chose a trial by judge.

Comeaux also ordered Armond Duhon to pay $2.328 million in restitution to Capital Management along with $200,000 for court costs.

The 16th Judicial District attorney filed a bill of information against defendants in the case collectively charging them with 674 counts of theft of $1,500 or more, 100 counts of money laundering and one count of racketeering. Prosecutors filed the original bill in June 2015 and added more theft charges in October 2016.

The defendants charged in the 16th district were Armond Duhon, Karen Duhon; the Duhons’ company, A-B-C Siding Co. of Morgan City Inc.; Capital Management’s former assistant bookkeeper Donnasue Peveto; and Nelson-Tucker LLC, which was owned by Tucker. However, each defendant wasn’t named in every count.

Karen Duhon has yet to go to trial on the charges filed against her in the 16th district.

Peveto died in March 2016 after pleading guilty in December 2015 to one count of racketeering and 123 counts of theft over $1,500 and agreeing to testify against her co-defendants.