PERFECT $TORM OF FEMA SCAMS
PERFECT $TORM OF FEMA SCAMS
BILLION-PLUS IN 'CANE RELIEF WENT FOR PORN, BOOZE & OTHER WASTE
By GEOFF EARLE
June 14, 2006 -- 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 a luxurious $1,000 vacation at Punta Cana, a resort area in the Dominican Republic.
Another spent $300 on "Girls Gone Wild" videos at a Santa Monica, Calif., store.
Some opted for live entertainment: An evacuee spent $600 at a "gentlemen's club" in Houston, and another doled out $400 on "adult erotica products" at a Houston store called The Pleasure Zone.
"This is an assault on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's subcommittee on investigations. The panel will conduct the hearing today.
"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."
CBS News reported last night that 7,000 people could be charged.
As much as 16 percent of the total aid was hijacked by con artists, the report concludes.
A copy of today's testimony about the audit was obtained last night by The Post.
One "victim" rode out the storm's aftermath by spending $300 at a San Antonio Hooters - and $200 for a bottle of Dom Perignon.
The feds also covered one person's three-month stay for a Honolulu hotel for $115 per night. The alleged scammer also collected $2,358 in rental assistance - despite residing in North Carolina, not New Orleans.
Anticipating the city's rebirth, another evacuee spent $2,000 on five New Orleans Saints season tickets.
But one evacuee was more practical, spending $1,000 to pay a divorce lawyer.
Closer to home, one rip-off artist double-dipped in Queens - collecting $31,000 to cover an extended $149 per night at the Ramada Plaza Hotel while also taking $2,358 in rental assistance.
Most of the hucksters used phony names and addresses to collect Katrina housing aid. Many listed post-office boxes, and some even used New Orleans cemeteries - but the hapless feds failed to check up on them.
Most fraud occurred because the Federal Emergency Management Agency "did not validate the identity of the registrant," according to investigators.
Incredibly, the feds handed out millions in emergency housing aid to 1,000 people who used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates in a half-dozen states across the south.
FEMA paid more than $20,000 to one prisoner who used a post-office box as the address of his "damaged property." It sent 13 payments to one person who filed claims at the same address using 13 Social Security numbers.
A federal investigator sniffing out mismanagement listed a vacant lot as a damaged address - and still got a $2,358 check.
"This is absolutely disgraceful," said Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.). FEMA "loses a billion in Katrina at the same time it's cutting 40 percent of [anti-terror] funding to New York City," he added.
geoff.earle@nypost.com
BILLION-PLUS IN 'CANE RELIEF WENT FOR PORN, BOOZE & OTHER WASTE
By GEOFF EARLE
June 14, 2006 -- 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 a luxurious $1,000 vacation at Punta Cana, a resort area in the Dominican Republic.
Another spent $300 on "Girls Gone Wild" videos at a Santa Monica, Calif., store.
Some opted for live entertainment: An evacuee spent $600 at a "gentlemen's club" in Houston, and another doled out $400 on "adult erotica products" at a Houston store called The Pleasure Zone.
"This is an assault on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's subcommittee on investigations. The panel will conduct the hearing today.
"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."
CBS News reported last night that 7,000 people could be charged.
As much as 16 percent of the total aid was hijacked by con artists, the report concludes.
A copy of today's testimony about the audit was obtained last night by The Post.
One "victim" rode out the storm's aftermath by spending $300 at a San Antonio Hooters - and $200 for a bottle of Dom Perignon.
The feds also covered one person's three-month stay for a Honolulu hotel for $115 per night. The alleged scammer also collected $2,358 in rental assistance - despite residing in North Carolina, not New Orleans.
Anticipating the city's rebirth, another evacuee spent $2,000 on five New Orleans Saints season tickets.
But one evacuee was more practical, spending $1,000 to pay a divorce lawyer.
Closer to home, one rip-off artist double-dipped in Queens - collecting $31,000 to cover an extended $149 per night at the Ramada Plaza Hotel while also taking $2,358 in rental assistance.
Most of the hucksters used phony names and addresses to collect Katrina housing aid. Many listed post-office boxes, and some even used New Orleans cemeteries - but the hapless feds failed to check up on them.
Most fraud occurred because the Federal Emergency Management Agency "did not validate the identity of the registrant," according to investigators.
Incredibly, the feds handed out millions in emergency housing aid to 1,000 people who used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates in a half-dozen states across the south.
FEMA paid more than $20,000 to one prisoner who used a post-office box as the address of his "damaged property." It sent 13 payments to one person who filed claims at the same address using 13 Social Security numbers.
A federal investigator sniffing out mismanagement listed a vacant lot as a damaged address - and still got a $2,358 check.
"This is absolutely disgraceful," said Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.). FEMA "loses a billion in Katrina at the same time it's cutting 40 percent of [anti-terror] funding to New York City," he added.
geoff.earle@nypost.com
posted by Walking Contradiction at 6/19/2006 10:29:00 AM
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