I hope you are sitting down to read this one – this saga seems to have no end in sight. Last week New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin complained to Congress that his city is being shortchanged in its effort to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina — and not getting promised funds fast enough. But it turns out the federal government is actually trying to recover more than $300 million in grants it should not have paid — the result of fraudulent applications.
The AP reports FEMA believes nearly 70,000 Louisiana households improperly benefited. It says applicants received compensation for almost 163,000 homes that did not even exist before the storm. The Justice Department has so far prosecuted more than 400 people for storm-related fraud — and recovered about $18 million.
And tell me why THIS is not front-page news?
