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Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas
June 8, 2007
HOUSTON MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR FILING FRAUDULENT CLAIMS WITH FEMA FOR HURRICANE KATRINA AND RITA ASSISTANCE
Sixteenth defendant sentenced to prison in the Southern District for FEMA fraud
(HOUSTON, TX) - A Houston man has been sentenced to 45 months in prison for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with his filing of eighteen fraudulent claims for Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita benefits, United States Attorney Donald J. DeGabrielle, Jr. announced today.
On June 5, 2007, U. S. District Judge Nancy F. Atlas sentenced Michael Green, 26, of Houston, TX to a 45 month prison term to be followed by a three year term of supervised release . Green has been in federal custody since his arrest in June 5, 2006 and will remain in custody to serve his sentence.
Green filed eighteen separate fraudulent applications for disaster assistance, using eighteen different social security numbers and eighteen unique “damaged addresses” in New Orleans, LA, Lake Charles, LA and Beaumont, TX, claiming to have resided at each address during the landfall of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In each application, Green falsely claimed that the storms caused him to lose work or become unemployed and that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left him with an essential need for food, clothing and shelter. In response to these eighteen claims, FEMA mailed Green eighteen separate $2,000 expedited assistance checks which were sent before inspectors visited the addresses listed in the applications. Visits to the addresses by FEMA contract inspectors revealed that some of the addresses did not exist and, for those that did exist, that Green had never resided there. Evidence proved that Green was in fact a long-time resident of Houston and living in Houston throughout 2005 when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita made landfall.
A total of forty-nine individuals have been charged in the Southern District of Texas with fraud relating to Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita. Sixteen of the twenty-six defendants sentenced thus far have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
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