North Carolina Woman Admits to False Gulf Oil Spill Claim

A North Carolina woman has pleaded guilty to submitting false compensation claims and other offenses in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, Hurricane Katrina and a California wildfire, according to court documents.

Charlotte Johnson of Fayetteville admitted to two counts of submitting false claims to a federal agency, eight counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, records show. The 41-year-old was the first person in the country to be charged over a submission to the oil spill’s Gulf Coast Claims Fund Facility.

Johnson submitted the claim for compensation under the identity of her deceased sister and falsely claimed to have been terminated by a New Orleans oyster processing company that she never worked for, prosecutors said.

“When someone seeks to profit from tragic disasters and attempts to trade on other peoples’ misfortune for personal gain through lies and deceit, they will be held to account for their actions,” U.S. Attorney George Holding said in a statement.

An indictment last year accused Johnson of a series of false claims, saying she sought compensation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for rental assistance and property damage caused by Hurricane Katrina for a home in New Orleans that she never owned and in which she never lived. They said she also submitted fake claims for property damage caused by 2007 wildfires in California and 2008 storms that affected Tennessee and Georgia.

Court records show the claims totaled more than $75,000 and were submitted using different names. An attorney for Johnson declined comment.

Johnson pleaded guilty at a hearing this week to false claims related to the oil spill, Hurricane Katrina and one related to the California wildfires. Prosecutors dismissed four other counts.

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility — which was set up in August to compensate residents, fishermen and business owners for lost revenue from the oil spill — has received about 489,000 claims. Roughly half of those were denied because of ineligibility or lack of documentation.

The $20 billion fund has so far paid out roughly $3.3 billion to about 168,000 claimants, but many more await money. The fund’s administrator, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, has said he has received more than 7,000 claims considered to be potentially fraudulent. Many have been forwarded to the Justice Department for criminal investigations. The agency has so far won indictments against eight claimants.

Associated Press Writer Brian Skoloff contributed to this report.