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Daughter gets six years for defrauding FEMA, mother gets probation A Jackson woman who admitted to defrauding FEMA of over $267,377 in Hurricane Katrina assistance funds received a sixyear prison sentence last week and her mother was given three months probation for illegally taking nearly $23,000. Lawanda Williams was sentenced Jan. 24 to six years and three months in prison and ordered to pay back the $267,377 she illegally received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose ruled in federal court in Mobile that Williams is to also surrender four automobiles, real estate, televisions, electronics and other items she purchased with the money. Friday, Judge DuBose sentenced the woman's mother, Hannah Williams, to three months probation. She admitted that she had filed a false disaster assistance application for a Grove Hill address where she had not lived for more than 18 months. She received $22,904.31 in FEMA funds. The mother and daughter were among more than a dozen people who have pleaded guilty in south Alabama to FEMA fraud associated with Katrina. Lawanda Williams is responsible for taking more money than any of the others.
U.S. Attorney Deborah Rhodes said in a prepared statement, "Ms. Williams used Hurricane Katrina and the relief efforts as an opportunity to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by lying and by stealing other people's identities. The Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force is actively working to bring to justice those who took advantage of the recovery efforts to enrich themselves."
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