FEMA funds spent on divorce, sex change

[Scotty]

FEMA funds spent on divorce, sex change

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON, D.C. - 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.

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, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster relief agency.

Federal investigators even informed Congress that one man apparently used FEMA assistance money for a sex change operation.

Agents from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, went undercover to expose the ease of receiving disaster expense checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The GAO concluded that as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in FEMA help to individuals after the two hurricanes was unwarranted.

The findings are detailed in testimony, obtained by The Associated Press, that is to be delivered at a hearing Wednesday by the House Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations.

To dramatize the problem, GAO provided lawmakers with a copy of a $2,358 U.S. Treasury check for rental assistance that an undercover agent got using a bogus address. The money was paid even after FEMA learned from its inspector that the undercover applicant did not live at the address.

"This is an assault on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee that will conduct the hearing. "Prosecutors from the federal level down should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time."

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Tuesday that the agency, already criticized for a poor response to Katrina, makes its highest priority during a disaster "to get help quickly to those in desperate need of our assistance."

"Even as we put victims first, we take very seriously our responsibility to be outstanding stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we are careful to make sure that funds are distributed appropriately," he said.

FEMA said it has identified more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after Katrina and Rita and has referred those cases to the Homeland Security inspector general. The agency said it has identified $16.8 million in improperly awarded disaster relief money and has started efforts to collect the money.

The GAO said it was 95 percent confident that improper and potentially fraudulent payments were much higher — between $600 million and $1.4 billion.

The investigative agency said it found people lodged in hotels often were paid twice, since FEMA gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly. FEMA paid California hotels $8,000 to house one individual — the same person who received three rental assistance payments for both disasters.

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.

FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said.

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.

"Our forensic audit and investigative work showed that improper and potentially fraudulent payments occurred mainly because FEMA did not validate the identity of the registrant, the physical location of the damaged address, and ownership and occupancy of all registrants at the time of registration," GAO officials said.

FEMA paid millions of dollars to more than 1,000 registrants who used names and Social Security numbers belonging to state and federal prisoners for expedited housing assistance. The inmates were in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.

FEMA made about $5.3 million in payments to registrants who provided a post office box as their damaged residence, including one who got $2,748 for listing an Alabama post office box as the damaged property.

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 more than $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address.

Likewise, another person used a damaged property address located within the grounds of Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans to request disaster aid. Public records show no record of the registrant ever living in New Orleans.

Instead, records indicate that for the past five years, the registrant lived in West Virginia — at the address provided to FEMA, the GAO said.

[bellcurve]

To those folks that claimed Katrina money and didn't live through it: SHAME ON YOU! Get a life, get a job and work for what you want in this life instead of taking advantage of a national tragedy.

The vacation, alcohol, etc. purchases with the "FEMA" cards does not surprise me, especially if they were sponsored by a card company like Visa, MC, or something similar to that, which would make it easy to spend in any store.

I would like to think that if I went through something like that, that my porn and alcohol pleasures and my vacationing would take a back seat AT LEAST until I found a place to live, got a new job, etc.

This brings the problem for Katrina victims back to Square One. I'm not sure if these people grasped the concept, but the New Orleans they once loved is gone. Their housing is gone. Replaced with more Harrah's and Horseshoe Casinos. The FEMA support was for moving to another place, plain and simple.

I'm not sure if the government specified that to them, but they should have known to not look back unless they had family members there. The government should have told them this was the way it was gonna be.

I hope I don't see rallies again with people saying, "We want to go back to New Orleans" blah blah blah. Because that is very much a pipe dream at this point. New Orleans may not lose all its charm, but it is a tourist attraction as far as the city and the government is concerned. Why build low-rent housing if a) the same thing is probably gonna to happen those houses and the city can make more from hotels, casinos, amusement parks, etc. Make it a south Vegas in a sense.

Our government doesn't even care that a billion dollars was handed to people who wrongly claimed Katrina funds. That ensures that there is a longer waiting period on money given to victims of future disasters and terror strikes, or quite possibly that none is given out. Which is a shame. Bad apples have to ruin the rest of the bunch.

[Drew]

I don't think its anyone's place to say what can and cant be purchased with these payments. If you lived though Katrina, lived there and got this money and you felt what you needed to start over was a sex change or 200lbs less in husband ... so be it. To me, I'd rather get a new home ... but if thats what someone feels will make their lives better, their decision.

To those collecting that are not there ... for shame!

[Andre]

I don't believe it. This is just another attempt by the tree-hugging, politically correct liberal media to bring down the Bush administration. Shame on you commie reporters!! Shaaaaaaaame!!!!

[Sedrick]

I personally am beginning to suspect that this story might possibly be overblown. The biggest clue is that I don't think the Bush Administration gives enough of a damn about the victims of Katrina to have released 1.2 billion dollars to them. Also, in all the news stories the same few instances of abuse (Girls Gone Wild videos, sex change operation) keep getting mentioned.

Furthermore, has anyone said anything about fraud by supposed victims of the numerous storms to hit Florida?

Our government is running rampant with fraud (Bridge to Nowhere anyone?) and to simply single out the response to Katrina is suspect.

First and foremost an investigation of FEMA and its employees need to be launched, as I would suspect them first of being the ones to be defrauding money. I mean honestly, in all my life I have never seen such sheer incompetence from a government agency in my life. If in fact FEMA has allowed over a billion dollars to be ripped off by what sounds to me to be at the most ametuer criminals, the agency is more liable than anyone else.

[SteveFrame]

Well I believe it - every bit of it. I believe there is fraud on all sides though. My former in-laws live in southern Mississippi and lost over half their home in Katrina.

There was all kinds of fraud going on. And my father-in-law knows of some of the fraud that has taken place with some of the money that was given to some of his neighbors and co-workers. I think some of it is a matter of choice as to what the people want to do with it. But I think there needs to be some point when the Government (looking out for the betterment of the people) puts some stipulation on the money that they gave out. There was absolutely no "watchdog" over the money.

My father-in-law has told me horror stories of people still living on the streets or other places because their "bad habits" were supported by the money they got to rebuild their homes. One set of friends thought they could double their money but instead lost it all. And now they can't rebuild. He knows of other things too that I will not mention at this time.

I mean for the most part the people used the money to rebuild or are using it for that purpose.

I feel so bad for all the Katrina victims and hate that they lost their homes.

But at the same time I get angry when I think about some of the folks from there and from other places who went in and looted - not the ones who looted just for food to survive. But I mean some of the things stolen and looted were not for survival - it was pure greed. And my former in-laws having to pay at some places 5 and 10 dollars for a bag of ice or for gallons of water made me even more angry. I mean many times the government agencies and all that were giving out water were either out. But I know he even told me of people setting up to look like Red Cross or FEMA and then charging for the water and ice.

It was sickening the way that some people's greed comes out at the worse times.