Ex-official's yacht tale really a fish story
by Gordon Russell - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Five months after news broke that the city's former technology chief was holding parties on a 53-foot yacht that belonged to a city contractor, Greg Meffert acknowledged in a recent interview that he never owned the boat -- despite his repeated claims that he did -- and that the yacht has always belonged to a group of his former employees who had a lucrative city contract he oversaw.

Meffert said he told people he owned the Silicon Bayou, a yacht worth about $300,000, because he was "in the process of buying it" from the group of partners in Imagine Software LLC.

"Do I own any of the boat? No," he said. "Was I in the process of buying it? Yes. But the hurricane hit, the boat was damaged and I never finished . . . the sale never went through."

Along with various parties for himself, Meffert hosted a "thank you cruise" for contributors to Mayor Ray Nagin's 2006 re-election campaign on July 8, about a week before quitting his city post.

The Nagin campaign, believing Meffert to be the boat's owner, paid him $1,200 for use of the boat on Aug. 7, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.