Katrina's con artist

NY Times:

As much as $1.4 billion in government disaster aid to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — nearly a quarter of the total — went to bogus or undeserving victims, a new Congressional investigation concludes.

It is a scale of abuse that Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and chairman of the House subcommittee leading the inquiry, said far exceeded even his worst fears, despite months of accumulating evidence that the fraud-prevention system at the Federal Emergency Management Agency was woefully inadequate.

"It is shocking and appalling," Mr. McCaul, a former federal prosecutor, said.

The improper or fraudulent payments went to a dizzying array of con artists or other undeserving recipients, according to the analysis by the Government Accountability Office, which is set to announce its findings at a hearing Wednesday.

In one case, a man stayed more than two months on the government tab at a hotel in Hawaii that cost more than $100 a night. At the same time, he was getting $2,358 in government rent assistance, even though he had not been living in the property he claimed was damaged in the storm.

Emergency aid was used to pay for football tickets, the bill at a Hooters in San Antonio, a $200 bottle of Dom Perignon, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, even an all-inclusive weeklong Caribbean vacation, the report says. More than $5 million went to people who had provided cemeteries or post office boxes as the addresses of their damaged property.

FEMA also provided cash or housing assistance to more than 1,000 prison inmates, totaling millions of dollars; one inmate used a post office box to collect $20,000. Some of the inmates may in fact have owned property that was damaged, but most should not have been eligible for the aid.

In another case, 24 payments, totaling $109,708, were sent to a single apartment, where eight people each submitted requests for aid eight times, each time using their own Social Security numbers.

Another person collected 26 payments using 13 different Social Security numbers — a total of $139,000 — even though public records show the individual did not live at any of the addresses reported as damaged.

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An event that brought out the best in so many people also brought out the worst in others. For those who question the character of many in Louisiana this analysis will confirm those questions. BTW, Mike McCaul is the congressman for my district in Texas and is unopposed this year after a very expensive primary two years ago. The district stretches of the edge of Houston to the edge of Austin running along highway 290.