Contractor lied about FEMA pay to bilk hurricane-battered Louisiana town out of $600K, feds say [View all]
A man who scammed a small, hurricane-battered Louisiana town out of $600,000 by pretending FEMA would foot the bill for his recovery work faces up to three decades behind bars, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
Clarence “Billy” Burkette was indicted Dec. 16 by a federal grand jury on several counts of wire fraud for allegedly misrepresenting his services to the St. Tammany Parish hamlet of Pearl River, which about 2,600 people call home.
Prosecutors say the 53-year-old contractor from the East Feliciana Parish town of Slaughter talked Pearl River leaders into hiring him to repair damage from hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Isaac by claiming the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay back most, if not all, of the cost.
But officials say that once the town tried to claim those reimbursements, elected leaders realized they’d been hoodwinked.
Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/article_6e622b82-6506-11ec-9057-73bb31e22031.html
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