Zachary Fitzgerald
A judge has sentenced Armond Duhon to serve 20 years in prison after he was found guilty in June of charges relating to a scheme to steal millions of dollars from a Morgan City-based company, Capital Management Consultants.
The theft and other criminal activity occurred from 1999 to 2014 in what is the largest theft case in the history of the 16th Judicial District and one of the largest ever in Louisiana, Prosecutor Robert Vines said. The district includes St. Mary, St. Martin and Iberia parishes.
Three people and two companies were criminally charged with being part of a criminal enterprise to steal money from the investment holdings firm. Duhon’s wife, Karen Duhon, who worked as a bookkeeper for Capital Management, is one of Duhon’s co-defendants in the case and has yet to be tried.
District Judge Keith Comeaux handed down the sentence Monday morning. In June, Comeaux found Duhon 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 chose a trial by judge after waiving his trial by jury.
Comeaux sentenced Armond Duhon, 64, to 20 years hard labor without parole on the racketeering charge. Comeaux also sentenced Armond Duhon to eight years in prison on each of the 206 theft counts for theft over $1,500, six months in prison on each of the 15 counts of theft of $500-$1,500, 15 years on one of the money laundering counts and 12 years on the other money laundering count.
However, all of those counts will run concurrently with the 20 years labor for racketeering, so he will only actually serve 20 years in prison.
Comeaux also ordered Armond Duhon to pay $2.328 million in restitution to Capital Management and the Guariscos along with $200,000 for court costs.
The criminal activity in the case was “egregious” and Comeaux found that Armond Duhon aided and abetted his wife. But Comeaux has no doubt that Armond Duhon wasn’t the mastermind of the theft scheme, he said.
Peter V. Guarisco founded investment holdings company, Capital Management Consultants, in 1982. Guarisco died in 2005. Members of the Guarisco family testified at Armond Duhon’s trial that they discovered the theft after Capital Management’s ex-CPA James Scott Tucker died in January 2014.
The Guariscos alleged in a December 2014 lawsuit that Tucker was the mastermind behind a scheme to steal millions of dollars dating possibly to the 1980s, and they and their father placed absolute trust in Tucker to run the company. They also alleged that Tucker and Karen Duhon had a romantic relationship.
Vines said the defendants in the case stole $9.5 million, and Capital Management officials spent another $3.5 million after the alleged crimes were discovered to help bring the defendants to justice.
Armond Duhon had faced up to 50 years in prison at hard labor and up to a $1 million fine on the racketeering charge. He faced a maximum 10 years in prison and up to a $3,000 fine on each theft count of $1,500 or more and up to five years in prison and up to a $2,000 fine on each theft count of $500-$1,500. He faced two years to 20 years at hard labor and a maximum $20,000 fine on each count of money laundering.
Another defendant, Donnasue Peveto, Tucker’s former assistant, pleaded guilty to racketeering and 123 counts of theft in December 2015. Peveto died in March 2016. Two other entities, A-B-C Siding Co. of Morgan City, the Duhons’ company; and Nelson-Tucker, a company owned by Scott Tucker, still face charges in the case.
Peter Guarisco’s children asked Comeaux to sentence Armond Duhon to the maximum sentence possible. They testified that their father was a leader in the Morgan City community and was always willing to help others.
The Guarisco children said they spent over three years and 8,000 hours working on the case.
One of Peter Guarisco’s daughters, Leah Guarisco McGriff, said the family also asked Comeaux to order restitution “of the entire $13 million that we have lost.”
Another daughter, Laura Guarisco, testified at the sentencing hearing that she ran the family’s art gallery and was told by Tucker that the gallery wasn’t profitable. So she worked even harder to make it successful. She later learned that the gallery was making substantial money, but the defendants had been stealing money from the gallery, she said.
Laura Guarisco said Armond Duhon refused to accept responsibility for his role in the criminal activity. The case has left her “broken-hearted,” and she hopes to eventually be able to regain the faith in humanity that this case took from her, she said.
Several witnesses also testified for the defense during the sentencing hearing. Cathy Guidry, who has known Armond Duhon since he was a teenager and is a best friend of Karen Duhon, said the Duhons did a lot for the community, including their church.
Guidry said she’s a good judge of character and knows that the Duhons would have never committed such crimes.
Duhon’s brother, Robert Duhon, said that his younger brother was always helping people and isn’t a threat to society.
Armond Duhon didn’t even have the mental capacity to do what he’s accused of doing, Robert Duhon said. Karen Duhon handled all of the couple’s finances, he said. Robert Duhon felt sorry for the Guariscos, though, and what they went through, he said.
A few other people, who didn’t testify Monday, submitted letters to the court in support of Armond Duhon.
Vines said the fact that the Duhons filed a lawsuit against Capital Management and the Guariscos in July 2015 “speaks volumes” about their lack of remorse.
Armond Duhon’s attorney, Edward Jones, said, based on witness testimony at trial, his client was, at the very least, the least culpable person involved in the criminal enterprise. Jones also said Armond Duhon has no criminal history with the exception of some misdemeanor convictions years ago.
Though Armond Duhon maintains his innocence, Jones said his client probably did benefit from the theft in the case. Jones also asked Comeaux to take consideration that Armond Duhon has a “myriad of health problems.”
Karen Duhon’s criminal trial is scheduled for Nov. 13.
Capital Management spokesman Marwan Mohey-El-Dien said company officials are working to reach a settlement in regard to the 2014 lawsuit the company and the Guarisco family filed against all parties they sued relating to the theft with the exception of the Duhons.