Rev. Freddie Phillips alleges fraud by Cosmetology Board in passing 40% fee increase, seeks Legislator to sponsor bill to rescind the increase due to that alleged fraud.

Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., states his case of how officials of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) perpetrated “fraud” at the Senate Commerce Committee meeting of May 21, 2025.

Today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature is the first of a four-part series ahead of the next LSBC meeting.  In it, Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., provides extremely compelling evidence to back up his firm contention that LSBC officials committed “fraud” in representations made to the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee on May 21, 2025:

8/20/25:  Phillips states his case for his contention of LSBC officials perpetrating “fraud” in obtaining a fee increase in the 2025 Louisiana Legislative Regular Session.

Documents reference in the video above:

== Phillips’ August 4, 2025 letter hand-delivered (by Burns) and read to every LSBC Member.

From that letter:

As you are aware, I have been seeking the repair costs for this building since 4/22/25. When I got them, I was not surprised that, contrary to indications made by this Board that the costs would “exceed $1 million” that, as I stated in Legislative testimony, the numbers “are inflated.” The actual number is $199,500, and that includes a $115,000 roof replacement which I contend is itself inflated.

I draw your attention to the fact that the figures are on LSBC letterhead containing each of your names at the top of the first page.

I believe that the $1 million building repair costs representations made by this Board enabled you to obtain a $400,000 a year fee increase by means of extreme deceit, and, to be quite blunt, fraudulent representations made to the entire Senate Commerce Committee.

Because of the extreme deceit, exploitation, and, in my opinion, outright fraud that you have perpetrated against the licensees of this state, the Senate Commerce Committee, and the public at large entailing your statements to the Senate Commerce Committee entailing the fee increase, I am informing each of you that I intend to seek a State Legislator to sponsor a bill in the 2026 Legislative Session to roll back the $10 fee increase to $25. You will have obtained $400,000 through your fraudulent representations, and that amount is well over the amount you needed to solve the building issues had you simply been honest in your representations.

== LSBC’s own internal document showing that, notwithstanding representations made by LSBC officials to the Senate Commerce Committee that building repair costs “exceed $1 million,” the actual total for such repairs is $199,500.  Here are the individual components from the LSBC’s own internal document:

Roof Repair (which Phillips claims is itself highly inflated):  $115,000

Flooring:  $17,500

Electrical:  $17,000

Ceiling:  $18,000

Painting Interior:  $25,000

Retention Building:  $7,000

== LSBC interior building photos which Rev. Phillips contends were provided to Rep. Rhonda Butler for her to then disseminate to all of her colleagues (which she did) with the “additional fraudulent statements” made by LSBC officials that they lacked the funds to make the repairs (which cost, by their own internal numbers, $199,500) when, in reality, the LSBC was sitting on $1.6 million in UNRESTRICTED CASH!! 

Phillips asserts (and placed it in writing to the individual LSBC Members) that LSBC officials “exploited” the workers in that building by subjecting them to rainfall coming through the roof, etc. all as part of a “fraudulent scheme” to convince Legislators to grant them a massive fee increase which, in its original proposal in Butler’s bill, called for a $1 million A YEAR fee increase upon the licensees of this state.

That wraps it up for segment one of this series but, as Burns states in the video above, segment two will be out in just a few days, and it should prove quite revealing in its own right!