MORE than $1 billion (£540 million) in aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina was wasted on fraudulent or improper payments for a dizzying array of items, from divorce lawyers’ fees to an all-inclusive Caribbean holiday.
Undeserving recipients of taxpayers’ money intended for rehousing included a prisoner in Texas and a con artist who registered a New Orleans cemetery as the address of his destroyed home.
The staggering scale of the waste was disclosed yesterday with the release of an analysis by the Government Accountability Office into the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, already harshly criticised for its poor response to the devastating hurricane season last year.
More than 1,000 prisoners were among those who claimed rental assistance for destroyed or damaged homes, from places as far away as Texas and Georgia. More than $5 million was paid to people who registered a post office number as their destroyed property.
In one case a man stayed for nine weeks at government expense at a resort in Hawaii that cost more than $100 a night, while claiming rental assistance of $2,358 for a destroyed property that he did not even live in. Another man received the same amount after listing his destroyed home as Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans. Investigators found that $2,000 pre-paid debit cards issued to alleged victims were spent on items such as champagne at $200 bottle of Dom Perignon, pornographic videos, sex toys and sports events.