Slidell Woman Sentenced for Defrauding American Red Cross
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 20, 2010 |
NEW ORLEANS—STACIE M. DAWSON, age 47, a resident of Slidell, Louisiana, was sentenced in federal court today in front of U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. to four (4) months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. In addition, DAWSON was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,860.00 to the American Red Cross and serve three (3) years of supervised release, during which time she will be under federal supervision and risks additional imprisonment should she violate any terms of the release.
According to court documents, the Red Cross made disaster assistance money of up to $1565 available to those affected by the hurricanes of 2005 on a one-time only basis. DAWSON admitted that she applied for and received disaster assistance funds from the Red Cross up to seven times between September 9, 2005 and October 6, 2005. DAWSON repeatedly applied for these funds throughout the early fall of 2005, each time indicating that she had not yet received any money from the Red Cross. In all, DAWSON fraudulently obtained $7,860.00 from the American Red Cross.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.