(Baton Rouge, LA) - As a State Legislator, Donelon pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from state contracts.

While serving as a State Representative, and even as Chair of the House Insurance Committee, Donelon solicited the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), a state agency, for legal work. The Legislature, and particularly the Chair of the House Insurance Committee, has a great deal of oversight and influence over LIGA.

In 1989, alone, he received contracts for 300 files from LIGA for legal work. From 1992-2000, Donelon received $403,497.07 in legal fees from LIGA on top of the money he had earned prior to 1992.

Donelon was allowed to handle cases from LIGA for several years, even though he did not submit a proper application until October of 1992. In the application, Donelon noted that 77% of his insurance defense work at that time had been with LIGA.

James David Cain responded, "I’ve always been concerned about the way the Department of Insurance has been run over the past five years with Donelon in charge, but even I didn't realize his long history of personally profiting from power. That Donelon would not see the obvious ethical concerns with these contracts or blatantly ignore them for personal profit says a great deal about his character."

"Donelon’s abuse of power to get state contracts sends a signal to the rest of the nation that under Donelon 'corruption as usual' will continue to reign at the Louisiana Department of Insurance", James David Cain stated.

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