Sustainability Partners Lawsuit: Indictments and Civil Cases

The Sustainability Partners lawsuit story in Louisiana now runs on two tracks: state officials allege the Arizona company’s contracts with at least 20 local governments are illegal long-term debt that dodged constitutionally required Bond Commission approval, and an East Baton Rouge grand jury has indicted a Sustainability Partners executive along with two local officials on bid-rigging, monopolization, and malfeasance charges tied to those deals.

What Sustainability Partners Sold Louisiana Governments

Sustainability Partners markets what it calls “Infrastructure as a Service.” The company funds, builds, and maintains public infrastructure — water meters, wastewater plants, athletic turf, park lighting, and similar projects — then charges the government a monthly usage-based fee instead of taking a large upfront payment. The company keeps ownership of the equipment.¹

At least 20 Louisiana municipalities and political subdivisions signed on. The deals covered smart water meters in Shreveport and Lake Charles, park turf and lighting for BREC in Baton Rouge, a wastewater treatment plant in Ville Platte, dormitory Wi-Fi at LSU Shreveport, athletic fields for the Natchitoches Parish School Board, groundwater pumping meters for the Capital Area Groundwater Conservation District, and a rail line extension for the Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District.² Three of those 20 governments — Bogalusa, Homer, and Simmesport — have since entered state-supervised financial administration.

The State’s Case Against the Contracts

Attorney General Liz Murrill, State Treasurer John Fleming, and Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack say the long-term service agreements are debt or financial obligations that, under the Louisiana constitution, required Bond Commission review. None of the 20 contracts were submitted.³ Some Bond Commission members have suggested the agreements could be void outright if approval was legally required and never obtained.

Sustainability Partners rejects that reading. The company says its agreements are service contracts like utility bills, don’t count as “debt” under governmental accounting standards, and fall outside the commission’s jurisdiction.³

An April 2025 memorandum from Murrill to the Bond Commission set out a broader list of allegations:²

One contract carried an effective interest rate of 11.75%, and Murrill said the projects cost taxpayers far more than traditional procurement.
Waguespack called the contracts “very difficult to understand.” Fleming said one appeared designed to be incomprehensible.
Many contracts were never publicly bid. Where bidding did happen, the AG said the company supplied solicitation templates using its trademarked phrase “Infrastructure as a Service,” which effectively blocked any competing bidder from qualifying.
The company obtained sales tax exemptions it wasn’t entitled to, according to the AG, because it — not the government — kept ownership of the equipment.
Several contracts included upfront “rights fees” the company paid to the municipality. In Simmesport, Sustainability Partners paid off a $161,000 state environmental loan for the town, but the town would owe the money back if it exited the contract. Murrill argued that structure itself creates debt.

The Criminal Indictments

On October 29, 2025, an East Baton Rouge grand jury indicted three people after investigations by the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and the Louisiana Department of Justice.⁴

Samuel Jason Hewitt, managing partner of infrastructure at Sustainability Partners: two counts each of conspiracy in restraint of trade, monopolizing trade, and being a principal to malfeasance in office.
Gary Beard, former executive director of the Capital Area Groundwater Conservation District: one count each of conspiracy in restraint of trade, monopolizing trade, and malfeasance in office.
Oscar Reed Richard, assistant superintendent of system planning at BREC: one count each of conspiracy in restraint of trade, monopolizing trade, and malfeasance in office.

Hewitt was charged twice because prosecutors say he ran separate schemes with Beard and with Richard.⁵

What Prosecutors Allege

The state’s theory is that in 2021, Beard and Richard each worked with Hewitt to steer public contracts to Sustainability Partners by dropping the company’s proprietary language into public solicitations. Investigators found a 95% similarity between the groundwater district’s public offering and a template Hewitt provided.⁴ The groundwater meter project was valued at $45 million to $50 million over 30 years.

In the BREC deal, prosecutors say Richard used pre-written company language for a 2021 solicitation covering lights, poles, and turf at eight parks. The resulting contract had no spending limit or fixed cost. BREC Commission Treasurer Dwayne Rogers said it cost taxpayers $500,000 a year.⁵

A judge who earlier reviewed the groundwater district matter had found “a serious appearance of undue conflicts of interest,” noting that Beard held private business ties with Sustainability Partners’ principal engineering subcontractor and personally profited from that relationship.⁶

What the Defendants Say

Defense attorneys for all three issued a joint statement calling the charges a “mischaracterization of legitimate business and governmental activities” and said they were “confident that once the full facts are presented, it will be absolutely clear that no criminal conduct occurred.”⁷ Beard’s lawyer, Don Cazayoux, said his client and the commission were trying to protect groundwater and followed the rules as they understood them. Hewitt’s lawyer, Walt Green, said the company “followed an open and transparent process.” Richard’s lawyer, John McLindon, said flatly, “this is not bid rigging.”⁸

Where the Cases Stand

Beard and Hewitt were booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on October 30, 2025, and released the next day on $30,000 bail each. Richard was booked October 31 and released on a $30,000 bond. Richard was still employed by BREC on the date of his arrest.⁹

All three pleaded not guilty on December 15, 2025, before Judge Carson Marcantel in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge. The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case. A motions hearing was set for March 10, 2026.⁸

Civil Cases That Preceded the Criminal Charges

The groundwater district contract also produced the first major civil test of the model. The Baton Rouge Water Works Company sued the Capital Area Groundwater Conservation District, arguing that the pumping charges the district imposed to pay Sustainability Partners were an illegal tax. Local Tax Judge Cade Cole ruled in November 2023 that the tax board could decide whether the charges were really taxes disguised as fees,¹⁰ and in April 2024 held that if they were taxes, they would be unconstitutional severance taxes barred to political subdivisions.¹¹ The dispute settled for $16 million, according to State Affairs.¹² The groundwater commission has since been dissolved and folded into the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.⁶

Ville Platte took a different route. The town sued Sustainability Partners in federal court in June 2023 to get out of its wastewater treatment plant contract. The case, City of Ville Platte v. SP Ville Platte WWTP LLC, No. 6:23-cv-00816, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and resolved by joint dismissal in June 2024.¹³ According to the AG’s memorandum, the town had to secure additional bond money to cover the cost of the exit.² The Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District has been separately negotiating a termination fee to exit its own contract.

What’s Still Open

Murrill’s April 2025 memorandum said her office was investigating the Louisiana contracts for “potential criminal and civil violations of the law,” with a focus on the missing Bond Commission approvals, the sales tax exemptions, and the rights fees.² The October 2025 indictments cover only the groundwater district and BREC deals; the other 18 contracts remain under scrutiny.

The legislature has also brushed against the underlying question. HB 836 in 2024 would have exempted certain concession and cooperative endeavor agreements from Bond Commission approval if they met specific financial criteria, including certification by the attorney general. The bill passed the Louisiana House unanimously and stalled in Senate Finance, where it remained pending as of the last recorded activity.¹⁴ The bill doesn’t name Sustainability Partners, but it addresses the same question at the heart of the dispute: when a service-style infrastructure contract has to clear the commission.

1
Sustainability Partners. Sustainability Partners Official Website
2
Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. AG Memorandum to Louisiana Bond Commission
3
Bond Buyer. Louisiana Officials Say Sustainability Partners Evaded Debt Law
4
The Advocate. Baton Rouge Indictments in Bid Rigging
5
WBRZ. Lawyers Say Indictment Based on Mischaracterization
6
WAFB. Ex-Director Indicted After WAFB I-Team Reports
7
WBRZ. BREC Officer Indicted on Malfeasance
8
The Advocate. Three Plead Not Guilty to Bid Rigging in Groundwater, Park Deals
9
WBRZ. BREC Assistant Superintendent Indicted for Conspiracy
10
Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals. Baton Rouge Water Works v. Capital Area Groundwater Conservation Commission, Judgment on Exceptions
11
Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals. Baton Rouge Water Works v. Capital Area Groundwater Conservation Commission, Partial Summary Judgment
12
State Affairs. Sustainability Partners Coverage
13
CourtListener. City of Ville Platte v. SP Ville Platte WWTP LLC
14
Louisiana State Legislature. HB836 Bill Information