From the Louisiana Record:
“An investigator probing fraud in the multi-billion dollar Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement has filed a clawback request against yet another Gulf Coast fisherman, saying he filed fake paperwork to justify a $168,000 claim payment. “Jimmy Shoemaker Jr. of Pass Christian, Miss. is the latest fisherman to come under investigation by Louis Freeh, the former FBI director hired 18 months ago to root out fraud in the massive oil spill settlement case. In court papers filed late Wednesday, Freeh asked U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to demand the return of $168,692 paid to Shoemaker, saying the fisherman falsified IRS forms specifically designed to defraud the settlement trust fund. “The move against Shoemaker is the most recent of about a half-dozen actions Freeh has filed against Gulf Coast fishermen in the past year. In every case, Freeh has alleged that fishermen used phony documents, often unsigned, unfiled IRS documents, to justify substantial claims payments that were made by settlement administrator Patrick Juneau. Though Juneau has the authority to require verifiable IRS documents before making claims awards, he has so far declined to do so, saying he is not mandated to do so by the settlement agreement and that the small amount of fraud such a policy would prevent is outweighed by the added work it would cause to his operation.” Read more...
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