United States Attorneys Office
Northern District of Oklahoma

THREE TULSA, OKLAHOMA RESIDENTS SENTENCED FOR HURRICANE KATRINA & RITA FRAUD

TULSA, Okla. - Three individuals were sentenced today for defrauding the government of funds intended for hurricane disaster relief victims, announced United States Attorney David E. O'Meilia of the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Jelena Ann Cureington, age 28, her common law husband, Edward J. Demolle, age 39, and Carolyn Ann Vereen, Demolle's mother, age 55, all from Tulsa, were each sentenced to five years probation with the first six months to be served in home detention with electronic monitoring. Cureington and Demolle are ordered to pay restitution of $10,716 to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Vereen is to pay restitution of $6,278. All three earlier pled guilty to Conspiracy, Wire Fraud and Mail Fraud.

The defendants carried out a scheme to defraud the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of funds that were intended to assist the victims of hurricanes occurring on the gulf coast, including Hurricane Katrina which occurred on Aug 29, 2005, and Hurricane Rita, which occurred on Sept 23, 2005. Between September 2005 and January 2006, all three defendants applied a number of times by telephone and by mail to FEMA for disaster relief using their names and the names of other individuals. The claims were for purported hurricane damage by Hurricane Katrina to various places of residence in which they claimed to have lived in Louisiana. Additionally, Jelena Cureington applied for disaster relief due to Hurricane Rita's purported damage to a claimed residence in Louisiana. In fact, none of the defendants resided in Louisiana at the time of either hurricane and all three actually resided in Tulsa. To disguise and complete the scheme, the defendants had FEMA mail the disaster relief checks to various addresses in the Tulsa area and then cashed the checks at local banks where they had recently opened accounts. The total amount of disaster relief funds received by the trio in the alleged fraud was approximately $52,571.17.

In September 2005, the Department of Justice created the national Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force, designed to deter, investigate and prosecute disaster-related federal crimes such as charity fraud, identity theft, procurement fraud and insurance fraud. The Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force, chaired by Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Alice S. Fisher, includes members from the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, the Postal Inspector's Office and the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, among others.

If anyone has information concerning possible fraud being committed during the post-Katrina recovery effort, please call either the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General Fraud Hotline at 1-866-720-5721 or the FBI Fraud Hotline at 1-800-225-5324.