Mayfield was implicated in account records investigated by the United States Attorney's office involving the New Orleans Library Foundation and a payment to the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. In May 2015 Irvin Mayfield was accused of scandal involving unethical use of non-profit funds. The scandal first erupted when WWL-TV, a CBS affiliate, revealed that Irvin Mayfield and Ronald Markham rewrote the bylaws of the Library Foundation board so they could divert funds to New Orleans Jazz Orchestra which was also led by Mayfield and Markham. WWL further revealed that Mayfield spent $18,000 of foundation money on a five-night trip to New York in 2012. As president of the Library Foundation, and with Markham on its board, Mayfield steered more than $1 million of library donations toward the $10 million cost of constructing the Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market and other projects. Mayfield and Markham resigned from the Library Foundation shortly after this was reported. In May 2016 Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra reached an agreement to pay $483,000 of that money back to the Library Foundation over a period of five years, and NOJO also pledged to raise the rest of the $1.1 million through benefit concerts. In July 2016 Mayfield resigned as artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. On April 13, 2017, WWLTV reported that FBI and the Inspector General's office are seeking information from the New Orleans Library Foundation as it continues its investigation into jazz musician Irvin Mayfield.