Mississippi Man Sentenced to Prison for Fraudulent Oil Spill Claim

February 6, 2014

A 51-year-old Vancleave, Miss., man who claimed he caught 1,000 pounds of shrimp a day before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is going to prison over $36,300. That’s how much he received in oil-spill recovery money by claiming he owned a business that lost money.

The Sun Herald reports a judge has ordered Joseph Anthony Clements to prison for 53 months and ordered him to repay the money.

Clements claimed he owned a shrimping and fishing business before the oil spill of April 2010 and filed paperwork including documents showing his income and losses.

A federal grand jury indicted him in August on three counts of mail fraud.

U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden sentenced him Thursday.