CRISIS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “The Justice Department is directing U.S. attorney’s offices around the country to improve efforts to target fraud in the disaster-relief efforts that arose after a series of devastating hurricanes pummeled the United States.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in a memo dated Sept. 22, directs each office to log and track all disaster fraud cases relating to major national disasters; direct all complaints to an office within the Justice Department’s criminal division called the National Center for Disaster Fraud; and ask for additional staffing if needed. The memo also requires each U.S. attorney’s office to designate a point person for the issue…
The directive come as Puerto Rico and states from Texas to Florida begin rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure in the wake of Hurricanes Maria, Irma and Harvey, which left an estimated tens of billions of dollars in damage in their wake. Billions of dollars in federal aid is expected to help in that effort…
Earlier this month, U.S. attorney’s offices in Puerto Rico and Florida formed task forces with state and local agencies in what they said was an effort to combat fraud in cleanup operations, fake charities claiming to be providing relief to victims, and other fraudulent activity.
The National Center for Disaster Fraud was created in 2005 to deal with complaints stemming from Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal money went to rebuilding the Gulf Coast region. Federal prosecutors in 49 districts charged 1,370 disaster fraud cases in the wake of Katrina and Rita, another 2005 hurricane, the memo said.”
-Aruna Viswanatha, “Justice Department Steps Up Efforts Against Disaster-Relief Fraud,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept, 26, 2017 09:00am