frauds

=Katrina Frauds= Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales established the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force. The Task Force is charged with deterring, detecting, and prosecuting unscrupulous individuals who try to take advantage of the Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma disasters. The overall goal is to stop people who seek to illegally take for themselves the money that is intended for the victims of the hurricanes and the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region. The Task Force has mobilized to send a strong message of deterrence by bringingprosecutions as quickly as possible. The Task Force tracks referrals of potential cases and complaints, coordinates with law enforcement agencies to initiate investigations, and works with the appropriate United States Attorneys’ Offices to ensure timely and effective prosecution of Hurricane Katrina-, Rita-, and Wilma-related fraud cases. By casting a broad net and using the investigative assets of federal law enforcement agencies, federal Inspectors General, and state and local law enforcement – together with the prosecutive resources of the 93 United States Attorneys’ Offices – the Task Force is positioned to act quickly and aggressively to bring to justice those who would further harm the victims of these natural disasters. Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, vast numbers of people have needed help from government and private-sector entities. Throughout the Gulf Coast region, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, hundreds of thousands of homes and other property.