6.15.2006
Fraudsters Steal $1bn of Katrina Funds (Guardian.co.uk)
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday June 14, 2006
About $1bn (£542m) in relief meant for victims of Hurricane Katrina was lost to fraud, with bogus claimants spending the money on Hawaiian holidays, football tickets, diamond jewellery and Girls Gone Wild porn videos, the US Congress was told on Wednesday.
The fraud, exposed through an audit by the Government Accountability Office, found a staggering amount of abuse of the housing assistance and debit cards given out by the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency as a way of granting relief to those who lost their homes to Katrina.
Testimony presented to the house committee on Homeland Security yesterday revealed that Fema paid housing assistance to people who had never lived in a hurricane-damaged property - including at least 1,000 prison inmates - and made payments to people who were living in free hotel rooms. In one instance it paid out on a property damage claim from a cemetery in New Orleans - to a person who had never lived in the city. In another it paid compensation for a vacant lot.
"Fema paid over $20,000 to an inmate who used a post office box as his damaged property," Gregory Kutz, the GAO's director of audits, told the committee.
The extent of the fraud was uncovered the day after the first tropical storm of this year's hurricane season landed near Tallahassee, Florida. Concerns remain that despite the torrent of criticism and soul searching after Hurricane Katrina, the agency remains ill-equipped to deal with coming storms.
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Fraudsters steal $1bn of Katrina funds) ¶ 08:13
Wednesday June 14, 2006
About $1bn (£542m) in relief meant for victims of Hurricane Katrina was lost to fraud, with bogus claimants spending the money on Hawaiian holidays, football tickets, diamond jewellery and Girls Gone Wild porn videos, the US Congress was told on Wednesday.
The fraud, exposed through an audit by the Government Accountability Office, found a staggering amount of abuse of the housing assistance and debit cards given out by the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency as a way of granting relief to those who lost their homes to Katrina.
Testimony presented to the house committee on Homeland Security yesterday revealed that Fema paid housing assistance to people who had never lived in a hurricane-damaged property - including at least 1,000 prison inmates - and made payments to people who were living in free hotel rooms. In one instance it paid out on a property damage claim from a cemetery in New Orleans - to a person who had never lived in the city. In another it paid compensation for a vacant lot.
"Fema paid over $20,000 to an inmate who used a post office box as his damaged property," Gregory Kutz, the GAO's director of audits, told the committee.
The extent of the fraud was uncovered the day after the first tropical storm of this year's hurricane season landed near Tallahassee, Florida. Concerns remain that despite the torrent of criticism and soul searching after Hurricane Katrina, the agency remains ill-equipped to deal with coming storms.
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Fraudsters steal $1bn of Katrina funds) ¶ 08:13
