Guilty Pleas Entered for Fake Claims

Three of 14 Miami-Dade County, Fla., residents have pled guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud and filing a false claim of damage done by Hurricane Frances. They claimed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that $156,354 worth of personal property had been destroyed.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Carlos B. Castillo said Equilla Smith, 29, Rena Henderson, 23, and Lesley Johnson, 33, pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud and filing a false claim.

Smith called FEMA about three weeks after Frances to file a claim for damaged property and not long after an inspector surveyed the alleged damage, a check arrived for $18,323.64. Prosecutors claim Smith’s “misstatements and omissions” led the agency to issue the check in error.

The government leveled the same accusation against Henderson, who was visited by a FEMA inspector before she received her check for $4,590.61.

Johnson received two visits from inspectors before she received a wire transfer and two checks worth $6,203.46 from FEMA. She, too, is accused of making misstatements and omissions during the application process.

As part of the reimbursement process, applicants show FEMA inspectors the property they claimed was damaged in a disaster; the inspectors determine how much the property is worth and how much to reimburse them for the claim.

FEMA has asked 7,300 people — about 1 percent of the more than 600,000 people who received aid — to repay some of the money, according to a report by the Associated Press.