Heirs of Fraudulent Fortune File Legacy Lawsuit

Seven heirs of Judge Leander Perez have sent shockwaves through the Plaquemines Parish community in Louisiana. The heirs have brought a legacy suit against major oil companies for pollution of land owned by the Paris family. The lawsuit in itself it not shocking as there have been many previously successful suits of the kind, but the suit is surprising considering the family’s previous high profile scandals. The family was wealthy and politically powerful in the parish prior to the discovery that the family’s wealth came from oil leases and royalties that were fraudulently acquired by Judge Perez and kept secret for over 50 years.

See Mike Perlstein & David Hammer, Tainted Legacy: Heirs to Ill-Gotten Fortune Back in Court Seeking More, WWL, Dec. 12, 2014