06:54 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Associated Press

FRESNO, CA -- Two men were sentenced to federal prison Monday after pleading guilty to a scam that bilked thousands of Hurricane Katrina funds from the American Red Cross.

David Robert Candelaria, 37, and Harold Dennis Oats, 26, worked as employees at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield where they filed false claims to get money wired to themselves or to family and friends.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii sentenced Candelaria to 18 months in prison and Oats to 10 months. They were also ordered to repay $12,520. Both pleaded guilty to several counts of wire fraud as part of plea deals.

During the aftermath of Katrina, the Red Cross rushed to set up call centers across the country that provided qualifying victims with a personal identification number they then presented to receive aid funds from Western Union. The Bakersfield center was the largest.

The Red Cross contacted the FBI after it performed an audit and discovered an unusually high number of claims were being paid out at Western Union outlets in the Bakersfield area, even though few evacuees had moved there. More than 60 Bakersfield-area people were indicted on fraud charges.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)