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Billions that should have gone to tragic victims like these were instead squandered. Photo: AP WASHINGTON - In a shocking rip-off of taxpayers, federal hurricane relief bought "Girls Gone Wild" videos, Caribbean vacations and French champagne, as thousands of brazen scam artists bilked the government out of $1.4 billion, a bombshell report reveals. Although the aid was intended to shelter and clothe thousands of devastated families from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the audit to be presented to Congress today shows a widespread criminal splurge of debauchery and excess while the feds were asleep at the switch. One evacuee scammed...

"Thousands of Gulf Coast residents have been told they must repay millions of dollars in federal Hurricane Katrina benefits that were excessive or, in some cases, fraudulent."

To: National Desk Contact: John Yembrick, 713-567-9388; Web: http://www.Usdoj.Gov/Usao/Txs HOUSTON, April 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Edward Good, 41, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who lived in Conroe, Texas after the storm, was convicted today of conspiring to commit wire fraud based on his scheme to fraudulently obtain Louisiana Department of Labor Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) debit cards. United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Don DeGabrielle announced today that Good pleaded guilty to the federal felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mr. Good's sentencing is scheduled for July 14, 2006. At sentencing, Mr. Good faces a maximum...

To avoid paying Coast property claims, at least two major insurance companies are "coercing" engineers to alter reports on Hurricane Katrina damage, attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs said Thursday. Scruggs is suing major insurers on behalf of almost 1,000 policyholders denied coverage for their Hurricane Katrina property losses. Scruggs would not name the two companies in question because he said he did not want to compromise his sources, who are potential witnesses against the insurance companies. Scruggs said the insurance company insiders talked because they were upset over how their companies handled claims in dispute. Private insurers will pay only for...

WASHINGTON - The government wasted millions of dollars in its award of post-Katrina Hurricane contracts for disaster relief, including at least $3 million for 4,000 beds that were never used, congressional auditors said Thursday. The Government Accountability Office's review of 13 major contracts - many of them awarded with limited or no competition after the Aug. 29 hurricane - offers the first preliminary overview of their soundness. Waste and mismanagement were widespread due to poor planning and miscommunication, according to the five-page briefing paper released Thursday. That led to money being paid for services, such as housing or ice, that...

MANDEVILLE, La. (AP) — A task force targeting corruption in hurricane-related recovery contracts in southeastern Louisiana has uncovered some low-level fraud, a federal official says. But an FBI official leading the task force said it is too early to declare the major corruption has not affected cleanup and rebuilding contracts. "It's really unknown how things are going," said Special Agent Howard Schwartz of the FBI's district office in New Orleans. "We have not seen the big stuff, but the big money has not gotten here yet." Schwartz said that could change soon as Congress considers President Bush's proposal to award...

The $US2000 debit cards issued after Hurricane Katrina to victims so they could buy emergency supplies were used in some cases to pay for gambling, pornographic movies, and tattoos, according to two government reports that detail grotesque fraud and mismanagement in which hundreds of millions of dollars were squandered. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's oversight of cash payments was so flawed, the agency made "millions of dollars of payments" to applicants with bogus addresses, names, or Social Security numbers. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin challenged the assumption that these expenditures were fraudulent. “The purpose of the aid was to try...

The government squandered millions of dollars in Katrina disaster aid, including handing $2,000 debit cards to people who gave phony Social Security numbers and used the money for such items as a $450 tattoo, auditors said Monday. Federal money also paid for $375-a-day beachfront condos and 10,777 trailers that were stuck in mud and unusable. Overcharges, poor accounting and abuses will take "months or years" to rectify, the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general concluded in preliminary reports on how billions of dollars in taxpayer money is being spent. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recognizes it...

Thousands of applicants for federal emergency relief money after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita used duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers or bogus addresses, suggesting that the $2.3 billion program was a victim of extensive fraud, a Congressional auditor will report Monday. The examination of the so-called Expedited Assistance program determined that the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to take even the most basic steps to confirm the identifies of about 1.4 million people who sought expedited cash assistance, leaving the program vulnerable to the "significant fraud and abuse," the Government Accountability Office intends to report. The auditors did not try...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The FBI arrested two Federal Emergency Management Agency employees Friday after each accepted $10,000 in cash kickbacks from a food services contractor, the U.S. Attorney said. The contractor, who U.S. Attorney Jim Letten declined to identify for "security reasons," notified the government immediately after the suspects allegedly attempted to solicit bribes from him while he was working at a FEMA base camp in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. Letten said both suspects — identified as Andrew Rose and Loyd Hollman, both of Colorado — took the contractor into a locked room on Dec. 22 to...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Asking for $2,000 in Hurricane Katrina relief assistance could cost six people up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut announced Thursday that six Portland residents, ranging in age from 19 to 50, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday, each accused of a single count of receipt of stolen government property. Investigators said the six made false statements in order to qualify for $2,000 in disaster relief along with $2,358 for rental assistance payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In order to qualify for the funds,...

FRESNO, Calif. - Forty-nine people have been indicted in a scheme that bilked thousands of dollars from a Red Cross fund designated for Hurricane Katrina victims, federal authorities said. At least 14 suspects worked at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield and are accused of helping family and friends file false claims for aid money, said Mary Wenger, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento. Six have pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges, she said. The fake claims drained at least $200,000 from the fund, with an average payout of about $1,000, Red Cross spokeswoman Devorah...

FRESNO -- Forty-nine people have been indicted in a scheme that bilked thousands of dollars from a Red Cross fund designated for Hurricane Katrina victims, federal authorities said Tuesday. At least 14 suspects worked at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield and are accused of helping family and friends file false claims for aid money, said Mary Wenger, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento. All the suspects are from the Bakersfield area and face federal wire fraud charges, she said. Six have pleaded guilty. The fake claims drained at least $200,000 from the fund, but that...

$39M Katrina Gov't. Credit Charges Probed By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago Federal employees helping Katrina victims charged more than $39 million on government credit cards for disaster relief items. Congressional investigators want to make sure the taxpayers got a good deal. And a senator, citing past abuse, wants to know whether anyone used the cards for holiday shopping. Many of the goods, which included $60,639 for sleeping bags and $713 for four 27-inch televisions, were bought at retail rather than cheaper volume prices following the Aug. 29 storm, according to federal records. The spending also included...

HOUSTON (AP) — It was a heart-wrenching story: A 10-year-old boy named John, separated from his mother during "the hurricane," now lives with other foster children in an emergency shelter, and he has one Christmas wish — to go home. "But there's no way I'll get gifts for Christmas. I don't even believe in Santa anymore," the story said. The Brazosport Facts ran the profile on its front page Nov. 29 as part of its Fill-a-Stocking series, which features a different foster child each day from Thanksgiving through Christmas and solicits donations to help fulfill the child's holiday wish. But...

(AP) — Two Jefferson Parish men — one of them ratted out by his wife — have been arrested in separate cases on Katrina-related insurance fraud charges, state police said. Investigators said Jose Francisco Salazar, 60, of Kenner, reported ceiling damage that occurred in his rental property before Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29 and for which he had received insurance money in 2001 and 2004. Salazar persuaded one of his tenants to use a shovel to damage the roof, tearing off shingles sometimes down to the bare wood, said Lt. Allen Carpenter of the Louisiana State Police insurance fraud unit....

HOUSTON -- It was a heart-wrenching story: A 10-year-old boy named John, separated from his mother since the hurricane, was living with other foster children in an emergency shelter, and he had one Christmas wish -- to go home. "But there's no way I'll get gifts for Christmas. I don't even believe in Santa anymore," he was quoted as saying. The Brazosport Facts ran the profile on its front page Nov. 29 as part of its Fill-a-Stocking series, which features a different foster child each day from Thanksgiving through Christmas and solicits donations for a local charity to help fulfill...

Phony Story Planted to Boost Donations By PAM EASTON, Associated Press Writer Friday, December 9, 2005 (12-09) 10:39 PST HOUSTON (AP) -- It was a heart-wrenching story: A 10-year-old boy named John, separated from his mother since the hurricane, was living with other foster children in an emergency shelter, and he had one Christmas wish — to go home. "But there's no way I'll get gifts for Christmas. I don't even believe in Santa anymore," he was quoted as saying. The Brazosport Facts ran the profile on its front page Nov. 29 as part of its Fill-a-Stocking series, which features...

VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) — A man who claimed to be a Hurricane Katrina evacuee faces additional theft charges after spending aid he received on a DVD player and a visit to a strip club, police said. Kennado Boyd Taylor, 24, who has addresses in Gary and Chicago, collected $665 in aid from the Red Cross in Valparaiso, Valparaiso police said. The felony theft charge he faces is punishable by up to three years in prison. Taylor also faces a theft charge in Lake County, where he's accused of claiming to be a hurricane victim to receive cash, a food voucher...