The legal saga of Thinkstream founder Barry Bellue has taken an interesting twist in recent weeks and the case appears to be nearing a conclusion. Still, there’s plenty of uncertainty about how the former Baton Rouge businessman’s troubling tale will end.
After Daily Report broke news on Aug. 30 that Bellue was scheduled to be arraigned on a significantly lesser charge, his attorneys responded this week by calling allegations that he used corporate funds for his own benefit an “unfortunate misunderstanding.”
The new charge is relatively minor—carrying a punishment of up to six months in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both—compared to the counts Bellue faced when he was arrested, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $50,000, or both.
So what has changed since his arrest? Have the original counts been dropped or reduced? If so, why? And from what does the new charge stem?
The attorney general’s office declined to comment, citing “an ongoing criminal matter.” In an unsigned position summary emailed to Daily Report, Bellue attorneys John DiGiulio and James Manasseh, claim the Thinkstream funds Bellue is accused of using for his personal benefit were actually “legitimate business expenses,” including payments to personal credit cards, his aviation company and property he owned in Mississippi.
Bellue, whose company was forced into bankruptcy in 2015, was the subject of a criminal investigation by the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Labor into the alleged diversion of Thinkstream employees’ 401(k) contributions for, among other things, Bellue’s personal benefit. The investigation resulted in Bellue’s arrest in March on counts of theft by fraud of more than $174,000 and criminal conspiracy.
In the position summary, Bellue’s defense also argues allegations regarding diversion of employee 401(k) contributions stem from a decision in 2004 to reclassify company engineers as contractors. Bellue reinstated the employees as full-time in 2005 and, the summary contends, repaid lost contributions with bonus payments, totaling about $320,000.
“It seems improbable that Mr. Bellue would bother with use of the funds from the employee retirement plan while during the same period in question he was regularly putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in the company to sustain it,” reads the unsigned summary, which also notes that Bellue invested $15.7 million of his personal wealth and family estate into Thinkstream over 17 years.
Absent from the attorney statement is any reference to the hundreds of creditors and shareholders who invested millions into Thinkstream during that period as well, according to records filed in Thinkstream’s federal bankruptcy case, or multiple loans from the now-defunct First NBC Bank of New Orleans.
Perhaps the only thing certain about Bellue’s curious case is that the gulf between the allegations levied against him and his defense is undeniably massive. Far narrower is any indication as to just how it’s all going to end.
