FEMA to Take Back Over $300 Million from Katrina "Victims"

It has been over a year since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf coast area of the United States. During this time, the US government and FEMA has handed out approximately $5.3 billions to those needing aid in the area. Unfortunately for FEMA as well as the citizens of US, millions of dollars have been paid to people that did not need the money, or even own property in the area. According to Census figures, approximately 8,000 of the 10,000 households given aid did not even exist in one area. There were approximately 70,000 household in Louisiana alone that have received around $309.1 Million in grant money, but should have received nothing. The kicker is that they believe this number will grow even larger. Now, FEMA and our government are looking to get this money back.

The AP has done an analysis of the government data from Katrina and Rita and found that they gave out nearly $5.3 billion in aid to the storm victims in the Gulf coast area. They found however that the government actually gave out more money in certain neighborhoods than homes that had actually existed. This apparently took place in almost 100 other neighborhoods that had been hit by the hurricanes. AP found that the government may have paid more than $1 billion to at least 162,750 homes that were not in any of these neighborhoods before the storms hit. They also found that the government gave out far more home grants than the number of homes. This happened in one out of every five neighborhoods that were only hit by Katrina. Once Rita hit the area, one out of every ten neighborhoods was given more grants than homes.

FEMAs lack of working databases and less than adequate record keeping has cost the country millions if not billions of dollars. Money that should have went to those in need ended up in the pockets of those looking to by frivolous items such as plastic surgery or prostitutes.

FEMA has fired back with the defense of how difficult it was to keep track of which family members and how many were actually filing for help. Apparently one family could qualify for many payments if a spouse stayed behind as an emergency worker while the other spouse fled with the children. "We were faced with a situation where we had individuals who needed assistance, and needed it now," David Garrett, FEMA deputy director of recovery, had said. "If we'd followed the standard procedures, it would have taken weeks."
But not to worry, so far the Department of Justice has prosecuted roughly 400 people on storm-related fraud. This has returned approximately $18 million to the Red Cross and FEMA, according to the Katrina Fraud Task Force. Here are the numbers of fraud cases per state so far: Louisiana (115), California (79), Texas (50), and Mississippi (46).

An example of fraud that has been dealt with accordingly would be the case against Lakietha Diann Hall (35) of Dallas, TX. Apparently Hall, along with her mother and nine others filed for assistance online, claiming her home was damaged in New Orleans. Ms. Hall never lived in New Orleans yet received $65,000 in disaster aid. She claimed she lived in an apartment complex in New Orleans which was in a neighborhood of 18,100 homes pre-Katrina. FEMA has recorded giving monetary aid to more than 21,000 homes in the same neighborhood in the aftermath of Katrina.

Ms. Hall pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 70 months in prison and has to pay $100 per month until she repays a total amount of $83,254. With this payment plan, it would take Ms. Hall over 70 years to repay her debt. The other ten people that were in on the fraudulent scheme were sentenced to either probation or one year in prison.

Another incident involved Nakia Grimes of Atlanta, GA for collecting $2000 in aid after she told FEMA her home near the Superdome had been damaged. Ms. Grimes (31) also filed her application for aid online and was sent approximately $6538 in checks to a P.O Box she listed. Upon investigation, officials found that Ms. Grimes never lived in New Orleans, just as with Ms. Hall. In March of 2006 she was convicted of mail fraud, ordered to pay a $100 fine, and was placed on four months of home detention.

The sad thing is that the people that actually lived in the areas devastated by Katrina and Rita that needed aid were sometimes denied because someone else had already used their address. Martina Wiggins had this happen to her and her family. Her family was denied aid because someone had used their address already, taking away the money her and her grandchildren needed to get back on their feet. Now most of the money is gone and and the people that need the help are not getting it. One woman, Crystal Dixon (25) has had a very hard time getting aid to feed her and her five children, ages 1 to 10. Meanwhile she stated that she met a woman who had lived in Houston two years before Katrina. The woman still had a Louisiana driver's license and was able to get monetary aid long before Ms. Dixon, even without children.

FEMA stated that people that were forced to leave their homes were able for several forms of emergency aid. People in rental housing received debit cards worth $2000 in order to replace possessions and buy food while households were supposed to be capped at $26,000. So where did all of the money go and how were so many allowed to get over the capped amount set forth by the government? FEMA and the US Justice Department, along with the Katrina Fraud Task force are all diligently working to find answers and bring people to justice that broke the rules. Hopefully they will be able to retrieve the misused funds and distribute them to the families that need it the most.