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Probe Finds Bogus Hurricane Aid May Top $1.4 Billion
FEMA Relief Funds Paid for Football Tickets, a Caribbean Vacation and a Divorce Lawyer
By LARRY MARGASAK, AP
WASHINGTON (June 14) - The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.
FEMA debit cards, such as this one, were sometimes used to pay for vacations, season football tickets and even a sex change operation, according to an audit.
Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help.
In another instance, FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel.
Among the items purchased with the cards:
· an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
· five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
· adult erotica products in Houston and "Girls Gone Wild" videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
· Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
· a divorce lawyer's services in Houston.
To demonstrate how easy it was to hoodwink FEMA, the GAO told of an individual who used 13 different Social Security numbers - including the person's own - to receive $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address.
06-14-06 00:59 EDT
FEMA Relief Funds Paid for Football Tickets, a Caribbean Vacation and a Divorce Lawyer
By LARRY MARGASAK, AP
WASHINGTON (June 14) - The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.
FEMA debit cards, such as this one, were sometimes used to pay for vacations, season football tickets and even a sex change operation, according to an audit.
Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help.
In another instance, FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel.
Among the items purchased with the cards:
· an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
· five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
· adult erotica products in Houston and "Girls Gone Wild" videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
· Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
· a divorce lawyer's services in Houston.
To demonstrate how easy it was to hoodwink FEMA, the GAO told of an individual who used 13 different Social Security numbers - including the person's own - to receive $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address.
06-14-06 00:59 EDT
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