Updated

The Justice Department is dropping fraud charges against a Louisiana landfill executive and his brother-in-law in a case marred by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

Prosecutors asked Friday for a court to dismiss the indictment of River Birch landfill executive Dominick Fazzio and Mark Titus is based on "evidentiary concerns and in the interests of justice."

The New Orleans-based U.S. attorney's office recused itself from the case last year after the resignation of prosecutor Sal Perricone. He admitted to anonymously posting comments on a newspaper's website about judges, politicians and cases he handled. The scandal led to the December 2012 resignation of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.

Fazzio and Titus were charged with conspiring to embezzle nearly $1 million from a New Orleans-based construction management company.