Hurricane relief cash spent on porn films

Alec Russell:

Tens of millions of dollars of relief money for Hurricane Katrina was squandered in scams and poorly thought out projects, US government auditors reported yesterday.

In one of the worst examples of waste, as many as 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under an emergency cash assistance programme - which included giving $2,000 (£1,148) debit cards to evacuees - based their requests on duplicate or invalid social security numbers, or false addresses and names.

As more than 1,300 people were killed by the disaster, and thousands were left homeless, fraudsters were spending relief funds on items as diverse as pornographic movies and a diamond engagement ring.

The report by the Government Accountability Office and the homeland security department's inspector general, Richard Skinner, said the effects of overcharges, poor accounting and abuses would take "months or years" to rectify.

Fraud mounts in Katrina aid program