BIRMINGHAM—A federal jury on Monday convicted three people of conspiracy and fraud for their family run scheme to steal more than $3 million from the claims fund that was set up by British Petroleum for victims of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, officials said.
The jury deliberated about seven hours before returning guilty verdicts against Marcella Truss, 53, her husband Martee Davis, 42, both of Grand Bay, Alabama, and Marcella Truss’ brother Howard Lenard Carroway, 42, of Mobile.
Sentencing has not been scheduled for the trio.
All three were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud occurring between August 2010 and December 2011 for filing false claims with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
Officials said this week’s guilty verdicts bring to 20 the number of people convicted in federal court in Alabama on charges related to the scheme to defraud British Petroleum’s Claims Facility.
Marcella, Truss’ son, Robert Truss III, 26, of Houston, Davis and Carroway recruited the 16 other defendants to provide personal information that was used to file false claims. Those recruited then received claim payments and provided a portion of the payments to the ringleaders.
All of the claims falsely stated they worked for a company called Built by Request and had lost wages because of the Deepwater Horizon incident. Marcella Truss owned this company and dissolved it after the scheme played out.
Evidence at trial showed the oil spill fund paid almost $2 million on the fraudulent claims.
“The people convicted Monday saw a disaster that harmed the Gulf of Mexico, much of its coastline and thousands of people, and their choice was to exploit the disaster and steal from the fund intended to help its victims,” U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said.
Adding, “We place a high priority on investigating and prosecuting fraud related to natural and man-made disasters to ensure that funds available to help victims of those tragedies do not fall into the hands of criminals,” she said.
British Petroleum owned the Macondo Oil Well where the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in 2010. British Petroleum set up the Claims Facility in June 2010 to settle claims made against the company by individuals or business for losses, damages or other costs resulting from the massive oil spill.
“Those who seek to scam benefits intended for honest citizens genuinely affected by disasters can expect the FBI to be right behind them, and ultimately to face the same result as those convicted today,” said FBI Agent Richard D. Schwein.
The jury also convicted Truss, Davis and Carroway of aggravated identity theft in carrying out the scheme. Also jurors convicted Truss on 31 counts of wire fraud for submitting, or causing to be submitted, false claims to the GCCF and on one count of mail fraud related to a check received as part of the scheme. Davis was convicted on three wire fraud counts.
Truss and Davis were convicted of laundering money stolen from the Golf Coast Claim Facility. Carroway was convicted on two counts of obstructing justice for telling recruits in the scheme to lie to prosecutors. He also was convicted on five wire fraud counts.
Truss, Davis and Carroway originally were charged along with two other people, Robert Truss III and Cedric Dion Ravizee, 37, of Birmingham. Robert Truss plead guilty in August to conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud. Ravizee pleaded guilty in June to one count of wire fraud.