Chandorell Miles, Wire Fraud, Louisiana 2016

Crime Pays: New Orleans Woman Gets Caught in Web of Deceit

A New Orleans woman has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) out of $406,400 in disaster assistance funds following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Chandorell Miles, 33, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court on April 21, 2016, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The GCCF, established by the Obama administration to provide financial assistance to individuals and businesses affected by the oil spill, required claimants to verify loss of income. Miles and 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 the documents to the GCCF’s office in Dublin, Ohio.

Based on these false representations, the GCCF paid Miles and her co-conspirators emergency benefits totaling approximately $406,400, according to court documents.

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, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The case was brought as part of the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) 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 A. Nguyen is in charge of the prosecution.

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