BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Board of Ethics has levied fines against leaders of an industry-backed nonprofit after records show a large loan moved through affiliated entities and ultimately to a former state conservation attorney.
What the board found
Board records show the Louisiana Oilfield Restoration Association (LORA), its sister firm Chromos Wealth Solutions and Andrew Berthelot — a manager at Chromos who also served as LORA’s chief financial officer — were each fined $5,000 following an investigation into a financial transaction that the board flagged as improper.
The records say LORA transferred $780,000 to Chromos, and Chromos then made a loan of the same amount to Johnny Adams, a former attorney in the Louisiana Office of Conservation. Adams previously helped organize the state’s program with LORA and drafted the agreement between the Office of Conservation and the nonprofit.
The timeline in the documents is notable: the transfer from LORA to Chromos is listed as occurring in 2022, while the board’s materials also refer to a loan to Adams in 2023. The records tie the three fined parties to that movement of funds and to Adams’ purchase of a home and debt payments that were allegedly covered with the loan.
Local program context
LORA was established in 2019 to work with the Louisiana Office of Conservation on plugging abandoned oil and gas wells. The nonprofit’s model gathers money from industry operators that opt to purchase financial security through LORA rather than posting traditional bonds. The group later retained Chromos — which, according to the records, is operated by the same people behind LORA — to manage the funds.
- Alleged transaction: LORA → Chromos → loan to Adams totaling $780,000.
- Sanctions: $5,000 fines against LORA, Chromos and Andrew Berthelot.
- Officials involved: Johnny Adams, former Office of Conservation attorney.
Why it matters
The case raises questions about how nonprofit entities tied to state programs handle funds and whether conflicts were properly disclosed when a state attorney helped craft the very agreement that structured the partnership. For communities where well-plugging programs operate — including many rural parishes where abandoned wells pose environmental and safety risks — transparency in how contracts are written and how money is managed matters for both accountability and public trust.
| Entity | Allegation | Fine |
|---|---|---|
| LORA (Louisiana Oilfield Restoration Association) | Transferred $780,000 to Chromos that was then loaned to former state attorney | $5,000 |
| Chromos Wealth Solutions | Received funds and made the loan to Johnny Adams | $5,000 |
| Andrew Berthelot | Manager at Chromos and LORA CFO tied to the transfer | $5,000 |
The Board of Ethics’ action is administrative: the fines are modest relative to the size of the alleged loan, but they mark formal discipline and place the transactions on the public record. The documents also underscore how intertwined private nonprofits, affiliated managers and state programs can become when managing large sums intended for environmental remediation.
Officials with LORA, Chromos or the Office of Conservation did not provide immediate public statements in the board records. The investigation and fines add to ongoing scrutiny about the oversight of programs that lean on partnerships between state agencies and industry-funded nonprofits.
For Louisiana residents living near abandoned well sites, the outcome of such oversight matters because the success of well-plugging programs affects local land use, groundwater risks and long-term environmental liabilities. The board’s action does not itself resolve those programmatic issues, but it does prompt closer review of governance and conflict-of-interest safeguards going forward.
