March 10, 2015 Louisiana Auctioneers Licensing Board (LALB) Meeting Highlights
 

CLICK HERE to View LALB Financial Statements @ Time of Meeting

Jenna Linn, Associate Attorney at convicted felon Larry S. Bankston's law firm,
recoils when LAPA Vice President Robert Burns references "FBI investigations."
 Accordingly, Burns explains why Linn would recoil at the mention of FBI investigations and
also relays what he would have stated had Ms. Linn not so rudely cut off his public comment.
 

 LALB discusses how it plans to handle complainant Betty Jo Story's
request for a reopened investigation of auctioneer Marlo Schmidt.
CLICK HERE for the entire LALB / Schmidt / Story saga. 

Jenna Linn reads a prepared statement by Larry S. Bankston regarding complainant Judy Fasola's request
for the LALB to file a bond claim against Estate Auction Services, the company overseeing auctioneer
Ken Buhler's operations at the time he auctioned merchandise for her.  Near the end of the letter
drafted by Mr. Bankston, he states that the LALB has "total and complete discretion" over whom it wants to
file a bond claim on behalf of and whom it wishes to deny such an accommodation.  It should be noted that
Mr. Bankston, while serving as a Louisiana State Senator, apparently felt he had "total and complete discretion"
to accept a thinly-disguised bribe from Fred Goodson.  As evidenced by the bottom of this page,
one lobbyist even said to Goodson, "Bankston needs to be rewarded for 'what he has done for us,'" after which
the lobbyist indicated a need to "deliver a truck load of money from the truck stop operators to
Bankston's home."  Perhaps Mr. Bankston has grossly overestimated in the past just what all
those placed in positions of public trust have "total and complete discretion" to do and just what they
don't have such discretion to do.  A 41-month Federal prison sentence (of which he served 33 months)
and a $20,000 fine may be an indication he's not the best judge of such latitudes!

Also, very interestingly, Mr. Bankston stated point blank that "in my legal opinion" neither the
executive director or legal counsel has the authority to file a bond claim.  He seemed to infer that
authorization could come ONLY from the LALB itself.  That being the case, is Mr. Bankston
implicitly indicating that Ms. Edmonds (executive director) and Ms. Dow (legal counsel)
acted beyond their authority in filing bond claims for David Swift and Brant Thompson
without a formal vote by the LALB to do so?

CLICK HERE for Ms. Fasola's 2/9/15 letter Mr. Bankston references in the video, and
CLICK HERE for the LALB's UNSIGNED response purportedly authored by LALB Chairman
Tessa Steinkamp.  Interestingly enough, those items through which the LALB justified NOT filing
a bond claim for Ms. Fasola, once she refuted all of them and demonstrated that the LALB  members
made GROSSLY incorrect statements, Ms. Steinkamp, after publicly stating those reasons for
not filing the bond claim, said the fact that Ms. Fasola had proven the statements false was
"irrelevant" to the LALB's consideration of whether it wished to file a bond claim.

If, in fact, Mr. Bankston's assertion is correct that the LALB has "total discretion" regarding
for whom it will file a bond claim and whom it won't, why should ANY consumer trust an auctioneer
with his or her merchandise or real estate?  In essence, Mr. Bankston is indicating consumers'
protection where a bond is concerned rests SOLELY with the LALB members, and it's been
proven with them that, if one has the political connections as Brant Thompson had entailing
his father as a State Senator (Francis Thompson), all will be fine.  If you're 84-year-old widow
Betty Story or Ms. Fasola, you're up the proverbial creek without a paddle!!

LALB discusses a $21,000 increase in budgeted legal fees for FYE 6/30/15,
 of which $15,000 is for Larry S. Bankston and $6,000 is for Anna Dow.

 
LALB attorney Anna Dow seeks LALB approval to enter into stipulation agreements (to be ratified
by the board) for auctioneers auctioning goods for which the value exceeds $500 yet no written
contract was executed. 

CLICK HERE to return to the chronological master listing of LALB videos.