Wayne Triche was sentenced to 41 months in prison for tax fraud and wire fraud for embezzling $937,658.77 from the New Orleans Firefighters Pension and Relief Fund.
In 2003, Triche and his business partner were given five million dollars from the Fund to manage and invest in life insurance policies. Triche’s partner died in 2007 and from 2009 to 2017 Triche funneled profits from the investments into his personal bank accounts 34 times.
He used the funds to cover a civil court judgment, expensive meals, travel, and clothing purchased on various credit cards, home improvement and gambling debts.
Triche failed to claim the embezzled funds on his tax returns and in addition to the prison sentence was ordered to pay the IRS restitution in the amount of $329,895. He was also ordered to pay back the Firefighters Fund the nearly one million dollars he embezzled.