Bogalusa Woman Sentenced for Defrauding American Red Cross

NAKETRA GUY, age 24, a resident of Bogalusa, Louisiana, was sentenced today in front of U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt to five (5) years of probation, with the first six (6) months to be served on home detention, after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud, announced United States Attorney Jim Letten. GUY was also fined $250.00 and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,825.00 to the American Red Cross. The charges relate to a series of fraudulent applications for financial assistance that GUY submitted to the American Red Cross in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

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. GUY admitted that she applied for and received disaster assistance funds from the Red Cross up to six (6) times between September 22, 2005, and October 7, 2005. GUY repeatedly applied for these funds throughout the early fall of 2005, each time indicating that she had not yet received any money at all from the Red Cross. In all, GUY fraudulently obtained at least $7,825.00 from the American Red Cross.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.