TWO MISSISSIPPI RESIDENTS AND ONE FLORIDA RESIDENT SENTENCED FOR KATRINA DEBRIS REMOVAL FRAUD

 

GULFPORT, Miss. - Allan Kitto, Clinton K. Miller, and Lauren Robertson were sentenced in U.S. District Court on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States, U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton announced today. The conspiracy involved the creation and submission of false debris removal load slips in the amount of $716,677.00.

Allan Kitto was sentenced to 25 months incarceration, Clinton K. Miller was sentenced to

33 months incarceration, and Lauren Robertson was sentenced to13 months incarceration. In addition, each of the defendants was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $275,057.

Kitto, of Dundee, Florida, owned and operated J.A.K. DC&ER, Inc., a debris removal contracting company working as a sub-contractor in Pearl River County, Mississippi. Clinton K. Miller, of Carrier Mississippi, and Lauren Robertson, of Picayune Mississippi, worked for a debris removal monitoring company operating in Pearl River County, Mississippi.

As a part of the conspiracy, Robertson signed false debris load slips misrepresenting that

debris was loaded onto trucks on the roadway when Robertson was not present at the loading site and, in most instances, created and signed the false load slips at her residence. The false debris load slips misrepresented that certain trucks, belonging to and under the control of Kitto and identified by a certain number, were hauling loads of debris at a time when the trucks identified on the debris load slips were not in operation on the roadway or at the dump site reflected on the load slips. The false debris load slips misrepresented that loads of debris were delivered to a designated dump site in Pearl River County, Mississippi when, in truth and fact, no debris was delivered and dumped at the dump site.

Miller collected the false load slips from his co-conspirators and submitted those false load slips to the debris monitoring company who would, in turn, submit the false load slips to the prime contractor for payment to Kitto.Kitto also admitted that, in an effort to conceal the conspiracy, he would deposit the funds obtained through the conspiracy into a bank account opened in the name of one of his employees, and then write a check to an unindicted co-conspirator who would cash the check and give the cash to Kitto and Miller. Miller would then pay Robertson for completing and signing the false load slips along with an extra amount of “hush money”.

In September 2005, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created the 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 Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division - includes the FBI, the U. S. Inspectors General community, the U. S. Secret Service, the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys and others

Pursuant to the Justice Department initiative, a local Katrina Fraud Task Force, consisting of over 20 Federal and State law enforcement agencies, was formed in the Southern District of Mississippi to pursue and prosecute individuals who file false and fraudulent claims.

If anyone has information concerning possible fraud being committed during the post-Katrina recovery effort, please call either the DHS-OIG Fraud Hotline at 1-866-720-5721 or the FBI Fraud Hotline at 1-800-225-5324.

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