US: Bogus claimants have spent up to $1.4 billion (€1.1 billion) meant for hurricane victims on tropical holidays, champagne, a divorce lawyer and even a sex change, investigators in the US have revealed.
The government funds given out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) after last year's devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita were also used on diamond jewellery, season tickets to American football games and "adult erotica products".
Agents from the General Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, found that as much as 16 per cent of the money spent in assistance went on false claims.
Among those who got their hands on the cash were prisoners, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address and someone who spent 70 days in Hawaii.
Investigators even told Congress that one man apparently used Fema assistance money for a sex-change operation.
Texas congressman Michael McCaul branded the bogus spending "an assault on the American taxpayer".
"Prosecutors from the federal level down should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time."
Fema said it had identified more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud. The GAO said that improper and potentially fraudulent payments were between $600 million (€476 million) and $1.4 billion (€1.1 billion).
Fema could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million (€1.2 million) even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said.
Among the items purchased with the cards was an all-inclusive week-long holiday to the Dominican Republic, costing $2,200 (€1,745).
Adult erotica products bought in Houston, Texas, cost $400 (€320) and someone spent 300 dollars (€238) on Girls Gone Wild videos in Santa Monica, California.
The investigative agency said it found people lodged in hotels were often were paid twice, because Fema gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly. - (PA)