LaPlace Man Pleads Guilty to Defrauding American Red Cross
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 20, 2010 |
NEW ORLEANS—WALLACE BOURGEOIS, JR., age 35, a resident of LaPlace, Louisiana, pled guilty in federal court today before U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr. to one count of wire fraud relating to fraudulent applications for financial assistance he submitted to the American Red Cross between September 2005 and October 2005, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.
According to court documents, BOURGEOIS applied for and received disaster assistance funds from the American Red Cross six times. 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. BOURGEOIS repeatedly applied for these funds throughout the early fall of 2005, indicating he had not yet received any money at all from the Red Cross. In all, BOURGEOIS fraudulently obtained $7,525 from the American Red Cross.
BOURGEOIS faces a possible maximum sentence of twenty (20) years’ imprisonment, a $250,0000 fine, and three (3) years of supervised release. Sentencing has been scheduled for April 28, 2010.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharan E. Lieberman.