Katrina Grant Fraud
An 86-year-old Louisiana woman has agreed to make restitution on a homeowner-assistance grant she wasn’t eligible to receive because the Katrina-damaged home she claimed for a grant wasn’t her primary residence. Rita Rohli Lee, of Slidell, La., pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, Miss., to making false statements on a grant application in 2008. Sheila Wilbanks of the U.S. Attorney’s Office says Lee claimed a home in Pass Christian was her primary residence, but it was a secondary home she owned and often rented out. Lee received a $100,000 grant from the Mississippi Development Authority in a program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She will be sentenced July 26 before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden.
