FEMA Exec Says He Has Seen Evidence Of Insurance Fraud After Sandy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The executive in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's insurance program has admitted that homeowners may have been cheated out of millions in insurance money.
Brad Kieserman, FEMA's deputy associate administrator for insurance, made the admission during CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday night.
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"I'm not going to sit here and conceal the fact that it happened because in the last three weeks I've seen evidence of it," Kieserman said.
FEMA admits it was told about the claims of fraud but did nothing.
Bob Kaible, of Long Beach, believes he may be a victim.
The city condemned his home after the storm. Kaible thought he'd be OK because he had flood insurance, but he told "60 Minutes," "I get the engineering report that there's no structural damage to the house. I'm like, 'What do you mean no structural damage?'"
Kaible claims the original engineer's report was altered by his insurance company.
In wake of the "60 Minutes" report, U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer or New York and Robert Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey called on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on Monday to hold new oversight hearings.
The New York and New Jersey senators want "to further examine FEMA's handling of the Sandy claims process and its oversight of the private insurance companies that facilitate the program on its behalf."
These "serious allegations and the questions that they raise are highly troubling, and we believe that Congress, in its oversight capacity, has responsibility to hold further hearings so that these questions can be fully addressed in an open and transparent manner," the senators wrote in a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Speaking in lower Manhattan on Monday, Booker called the allegations "outrageous" and "unacceptable."
"Bad things have happened here," he told reporters, including WCBS 880's Peter Haskell. "People should be held accountable, and we should take corrective action to make sure it never happens again.
Book said he also wants to see to it that victims receive the money they are due.
"The amazing thing about the homeowners: They're not looking for punitive; they're looking just to be made whole," he said.
On Sunday, local lawmakers called for a special monitor to be appointed by the New York state attorney general to see that every case gets reviewed.