U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that CHANDORELL MILES, age 33, of New Orleans, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud relating to fraudulent applications she made to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) for financial assistance in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to court documents, the GCCF made disaster assistance money available to individuals and businesses affected by the oil spill resulting from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The GCCF required individuals to verify loss of income. Beginning in or about September 2010, MILES, assisted by her co-conspirators who posed as claimants, completed claim forms with false representations, created false and fraudulent documentation to support the claim forms, and wired all of the aforementioned documents to the GCCF’s office in Dublin, Ohio. The representations in the claim forms included false representations that the claimants were employed at different businesses in the New Orleans metropolitan area at the time of the oil spill. The false documentation included earnings statements falsely purporting to be from the employers. Based on these false representations, the GCCF paid MILES and her co-conspirators emergency benefits totaling approximately $406,400.00.
MILES faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment. U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown set sentencing for April 21, 2016.
This case was brought as part of this District’s partnership with the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF), a nationwide initiative to protect available funds and assistance for those victims of both natural and man-made disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and the recent Gulf oil spill. If you have knowledge of fraud, waste, abuse, or allegations of mismanagement involving disaster relief operations, you can contact the NCDF by either calling the hotline at (866) 720-5721, faxing (225) 334-4707, emailing at disaster@leo.gov or in writing to National Center for Disaster Fraud, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-4909.
U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the United States Secret Service, New Orleans Field Office in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Loan AMimi@ Nguyen is in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
