Mississippi Man Sentenced to Prison for Fraudulent Oil Spill Claim
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.
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