As late as November of last year, federal authorities were investigating whether several Louisiana companies committed fraud in Livingston Parish during cleanup after Hurricane Gustav, documents unsealed this week in Baton Rouge federal court indicate.
The investigation was prompted by a qui tam filing last fall by Corey delaHoussaye, a former Livingston Parish contractor who informed the FBI of potential fraud by the parish’s debris removal contractors after the 2008 storm. A qui tam is a civil lawsuit whistleblowers bring under the False Claims Act, a law that rewards whistleblowers if their qui tam cases recover funds for the government.
Although federal prosecutors ultimately decided not to take up the case, documents that U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick unsealed Tuesday indicate they did ask for a 90-day extension to “conduct a proper investigation into this matter” and further review the allegations with the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as well as FEMA. delaHoussaye’s filing, which lays out details and a timeline for the alleged fraud, comprised a 217-page complaint and 266 exhibits.
In a late September memorandum seeking the extension, federal prosecutor Catherine Maraist notes “an investigatory team has been assembled.” The memo indicates investigators were reviewing FEMA contracts and regulatory guidelines, trying to determine whether the alleged false claims already had been investigated and resolved by the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, which ruled in May 2014 that Livingston Parish had received more money from FEMA than was justified by its documentation of the work.
Court filings offer no insight into the investigation’s findings. But in late October, delaHoussaye asked Dick to dismiss the case, after receiving word that federal authorities would not intervene.
Read the entire qui tam filing.
—Penny Font
