Student Loan Fraud (and a Little FEMA Fraud, too…)

According to the Houston Press, three heads of a local religious organization, Fishers of Men, have been indicted on fraud charges.  The details are a little sketchy, (and the USAO here in town hasn’t put the announcement on its press releases page), but it appears that the heads of the ministry allegedly sought student loans on behalf of its members, and the money went instead to building the church.  There also seems to be, allegedly, some FEMA fraud in there.

The article states that the individuals face a ton of time because there are a number of charges, and since fraud charges typically carry up to 20 years of imprisonment (depending on the variety), yeah, that’s technically true.  If you’re indicted on 50 mail fraud counts, yes, it’s technically true that you face up to 1000 years in prison.  However, the likelihood of a district judge (who, it must be noted, is in complete control of sentencing, based on guidance from the sentencing guidelines) stacking the sentences is pretty low.

FEMA Delays

The Houston/Galveston region has been largely ignored nationally in the wake of Hurricane Ike, and this chron.com story is truly amazing.  Apparently, according to the article, “federal officials have approved only about 13 percent of requests for money to repair damaged houses or replace ruined belongings.”  Hurricane Ike was six weeks ago, in case anyone had forgotten.

No doubt, some of the slow federal response is to prevent instances of disaster fraud, but members of Congress and other elected officials are saying that FEMA is moving too slowly.

In other Ike-related news, it appears a lot of individuals who came to the area to find work and help with reconstruction efforts have yet to be paid.  The Chronicle’s Bill Murphy has more.