June
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First fraud case emerges from BP oil spill
- USATODAY.com:
After fielding hundreds of fraud complaints from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, federal prosecutors filed the first spill-related criminal charges this week against a North Carolina woman whom they allege pretended to be an unemployed oyster shucker to claim lost wages.
The National Center for Disaster Fraud in Baton Rouge has logged about 1,000 complaints since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico, says U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who oversees the center.
The complaints have led to hundreds of investigations into businesses demanding advance fees to help oil spill victims file claims or train for oil spill cleanup jobs, and into dubious charities soliciting donations to rescue wildlife or restore Gulf Coast habitat, Letten says.
"With the increasing number of cases under investigation, there will be charges coming down the road," he says. "We know there are viable investigations out there."
Fraud hurts the credibility of the Gulf Coast claims process, claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg says.
"If eligible claimants or the public believe that the program is ripe for fraud, we'll receive claims without merit that tie up the system, that divert badly needed funds from worthy victims to criminals, and the entire program will suffer," Feinberg says. "There are scores of suspicious claims that we have sent or are sending to the Department of Justice."
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