"FEMA cards bought diamonds, erotica
GAO finds $1 billion in potentially fraudulent disaster relief
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 11:00 p.m. EDT (03:00 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Problems with the distribution of federal disaster assistance after hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused potential fraud and waste topping $1 billion, an audit by the Government Accountability Office found.
Debit cards given to people displaced by the storms were improperly used to buy diamond jewelry, a vacation in the Dominican Republic, fireworks, a $200 bottle of champagne at a Hooters in San Antonio and $300 worth of "Girls Gone Wild" videos, the audit found.
According to the GAO, $1,000 from a FEMA debit card went to a Houston divorce lawyer, $600 was spent in a strip club and $400 was spent on "adult erotica products," all of which auditors concluded were "not necessary to satisfy legitimate disaster needs."
The GAO concluded that at least $1 billion in disaster relief payments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were improper and potentially fraudulent because the recipients provided incomplete or incorrect information when they registered for assistance.
And the GAO said the scope of the problem may be even larger, because it only looked at the validity of registration information and not at other forms of potential fraud.
FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker on Tuesday told The Associated Press that the agency's priority in a disaster is "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," Walker told the AP.
The agency told the AP it has found more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after the hurricanes and has taken those cases to the Homeland Security inspector general.
The GAO also found that FEMA provided housing assistance to people who were not displaced, including at least 1,000 prison inmates, and also provided rental assistance to people who were simultaneously living in free hotel rooms.
Results of the GAO's audit will be presented Wednesday to an investigative panel of the House Homeland Security Committee. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The GAO also found that FEMA lost track of 750 debit cards, worth a total of $1.5 million.
After inquiries from the GAO, FEMA recovered about half of that money, which had not been distributed by JPMorgan Chase, the bank hired to run the program. But the agency still cannot account for 381 cards, worth about $760,000 total, which JPMorgan Chase says it distributed, according to the GAO.
GAO investigators estimated that 16 percent of FEMA's disaster relief payments were made to people who submitted invalid registrations, to the tune of about $1 billion. However, because the figures were calculated using a statistical sample, the agency said the amount could range from $600 million to as much as $1.4 billion.
Among the problems found with the registrations, according to the GAO study:
# People signed up for assistance using Social Security numbers that didn't exist or belonged to other people.
# Aid applications contained bogus addresses for damaged property, or gave addresses for damaged property where the applicants did not live when the hurricanes struck. In one case, FEMA paid nearly $2,360 to a man whose allegedly damaged property was in a cemetery.
# Payments were made to people who listed post office boxes as their damaged residences.
# People submitted duplicate registrations, which FEMA did not detect.
# More than 1,000 registrations used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates. According to the GAO, in one instance, FEMA paid $20,000 to a Louisiana prisoner who listed a post office box as his damaged property.
As part of its audit, the GAO used an undercover registrant who submitted a vacant lot as a damaged address.
FEMA paid the registrant $6,000 and even made payments after being notified by one its own inspectors, as well as an inspector for the Small Business Administration, that the damaged property could not be found, the GAO investigators found.
The GAO concluded that the potentially fraudulent payments occurred because FEMA did not validate the identity of registrants and the locations and ownership of purportedly damaged property before it began making payments.
While conceding that FEMA acted out of the need to provide assistance quickly, GAO investigators concluded the agency's own policies required additional verification before continuing payments.
The GAO study also found FEMA improperly provided rental assistance to people who were staying in hotels paid for by FEMA because the agency did not require hotels to collect Social Security numbers and FEMA registration information.
Without that information, FEMA could not verify if people were staying in hotels when they applied for rental assistance.
And because that information doesn't exist, GAO auditors said they could not determine how many people might have double-dipped -- or how much it cost the government."
GAO finds $1 billion in potentially fraudulent disaster relief
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 11:00 p.m. EDT (03:00 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Problems with the distribution of federal disaster assistance after hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused potential fraud and waste topping $1 billion, an audit by the Government Accountability Office found.
Debit cards given to people displaced by the storms were improperly used to buy diamond jewelry, a vacation in the Dominican Republic, fireworks, a $200 bottle of champagne at a Hooters in San Antonio and $300 worth of "Girls Gone Wild" videos, the audit found.
According to the GAO, $1,000 from a FEMA debit card went to a Houston divorce lawyer, $600 was spent in a strip club and $400 was spent on "adult erotica products," all of which auditors concluded were "not necessary to satisfy legitimate disaster needs."
The GAO concluded that at least $1 billion in disaster relief payments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were improper and potentially fraudulent because the recipients provided incomplete or incorrect information when they registered for assistance.
And the GAO said the scope of the problem may be even larger, because it only looked at the validity of registration information and not at other forms of potential fraud.
FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker on Tuesday told The Associated Press that the agency's priority in a disaster is "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," Walker told the AP.
The agency told the AP it has found more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after the hurricanes and has taken those cases to the Homeland Security inspector general.
The GAO also found that FEMA provided housing assistance to people who were not displaced, including at least 1,000 prison inmates, and also provided rental assistance to people who were simultaneously living in free hotel rooms.
Results of the GAO's audit will be presented Wednesday to an investigative panel of the House Homeland Security Committee. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The GAO also found that FEMA lost track of 750 debit cards, worth a total of $1.5 million.
After inquiries from the GAO, FEMA recovered about half of that money, which had not been distributed by JPMorgan Chase, the bank hired to run the program. But the agency still cannot account for 381 cards, worth about $760,000 total, which JPMorgan Chase says it distributed, according to the GAO.
GAO investigators estimated that 16 percent of FEMA's disaster relief payments were made to people who submitted invalid registrations, to the tune of about $1 billion. However, because the figures were calculated using a statistical sample, the agency said the amount could range from $600 million to as much as $1.4 billion.
Among the problems found with the registrations, according to the GAO study:
# People signed up for assistance using Social Security numbers that didn't exist or belonged to other people.
# Aid applications contained bogus addresses for damaged property, or gave addresses for damaged property where the applicants did not live when the hurricanes struck. In one case, FEMA paid nearly $2,360 to a man whose allegedly damaged property was in a cemetery.
# Payments were made to people who listed post office boxes as their damaged residences.
# People submitted duplicate registrations, which FEMA did not detect.
# More than 1,000 registrations used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates. According to the GAO, in one instance, FEMA paid $20,000 to a Louisiana prisoner who listed a post office box as his damaged property.
As part of its audit, the GAO used an undercover registrant who submitted a vacant lot as a damaged address.
FEMA paid the registrant $6,000 and even made payments after being notified by one its own inspectors, as well as an inspector for the Small Business Administration, that the damaged property could not be found, the GAO investigators found.
The GAO concluded that the potentially fraudulent payments occurred because FEMA did not validate the identity of registrants and the locations and ownership of purportedly damaged property before it began making payments.
While conceding that FEMA acted out of the need to provide assistance quickly, GAO investigators concluded the agency's own policies required additional verification before continuing payments.
The GAO study also found FEMA improperly provided rental assistance to people who were staying in hotels paid for by FEMA because the agency did not require hotels to collect Social Security numbers and FEMA registration information.
Without that information, FEMA could not verify if people were staying in hotels when they applied for rental assistance.
And because that information doesn't exist, GAO auditors said they could not determine how many people might have double-dipped -- or how much it cost the government."
