MSNBC.com Article: FEMA fraud paid for football, vacations, erotica

FEMA fraud paid for football, vacations, erotica The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13310790/from/ET __________________________________________________
FEMA personnel are not entirely to blame. Due to the magnitude of the Katrina/Rita catastrophes, there were insufficient trained personnel to handle the tremendous workload associated with the various aspects of relief work. So FEMA contracted with civilians to work for them and handle caseloads. These people received a few hours or a day's training at most and were sent out to process claims. Many were simply too ignorant of procedures to process correctly.

Many legitimate hurricane victims complained bitterly about being denied aid. But as the above article reveals, all too many fraudulent claims were granted.
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But while investigating frauds perpetrated by citizens, how about investigating the frauds and abuses perpetrated by businesses and corporations? Some of the no-bid contracts were awarded to (you'll never guess) Haliburton, Fluor, and Bechtel.

Corp Watch: Big Easy Iraqi-Style Contracts Flood New Orleans
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12647
US NoBid Contracts Win Katrina Work
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12620

And then, what happened? It is no surprise. Same thing happened in Iraq

CONTRACTORS OVERBILLED $63 BILLION -AP, Larry Margasak 05/2006
http://www.corpwatch.org?article.php?id=13545
(The CBS url posted here previously is no longer valid. This site has the same article)
That's taxpayer money, folks, YOUR money, into their pockets. What is surprising is that this originally came from mainstream media, CBS !