3 Arrested in Crackdown on Quake Aid Scams : Investigation: Federal task force targets those who allegedly claimed falsely to have lived at Northridge Meadows. A store owner is accused of fraudulently seeking a $1.5-million SBA loan.

Moving against the latest earthquake aid scam, federal agents on Friday arrested three suspects and were seeking a fourth who allegedly sought thousands of dollars in emergency relief by falsely claiming to have lived at the disaster’s deadliest address, the collapsed Northridge Meadows apartments.

One of those arrested, Miguel Cordero of Panorama City, filed a Federal Emergency Management Agency claim using the apartment number where mechanic Pil Soon Lee and his 14-year-old son Hwon were crushed to death, officials charged in a criminal complaint.

Another person falsely claimed to have lived part-time in a first-floor apartment where a 52-year-old man died, officials said. In all, 16 people were killed when the building collapsed.

U.S. Atty. Nora Manella said there was a “particularly ghoulish aspect” to the fraud involving the Northridge Meadows apartments. “It appears disaster brings out both the best and the worst in people.”

Federal agents also arrested a Calabasas convenience store owner, Siamek Kohanoff, who was charged with filing a fraudulent application for a $1.5-million Small Business Administration loan.

The arrests, the first made by a multi-agency task force that is investigating quake-related fraud, were intended to signal that law enforcement agencies are serious about pursuing opportunists who take advantage of the flood of quake relief aid programs, authorities from several agencies said at a Downtown news conference.

Citing the “despicable nature of these crimes and the potential for large-scale fraud,” the FBI is giving quake scams a top priority, said Charles J. Parsons, the special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office.

Officials say they are digging out from an avalanche of more than 400,000 aid applications--a record for a U.S. disaster--and are entering them in computers, cross-checking information and identifying questionable claims. Many more investigations, involving an array of relief programs, are under way and more arrests could be made in the weeks ahead, they said.

“We’re at the very beginning of FEMA’s effort to combat abuse,” said Paul L. Lillis, the relief agency’s assistant inspector general.

Authorities stressed that the vast majority of the more than $500 million in grants, loans and housing assistance disbursed thus far appears to have gone to deserving victims. Lillis said it does not appear that the fraud rate in the Northridge quake is higher than normal, or that the huge number of claims is unexpected, given that the disaster struck a densely populated area.

Lillis also said he had never encountered fraudulent claims involving residences where disaster victims had been killed. Those charged Friday with filing false FEMA applications made their claims by telephone in the early days after the quake, apparently using the Northridge Meadows address because it had been reported frequently in the news media.

Three--Cordero, Denise Jones of Carson and Mary Mitchell of Paramount--received $2,300 checks. The fourth, Daniel Richards of Hollywood, did not receive a check, although in a follow-up interview he allegedly affirmed to agents posing as relief workers that his claim was accurate. Public defenders assigned to Cordero, Jones and Richards declined to comment. Mitchell was still being sought Friday.

Cordero had been living in a rented apartment on Tobias Avenue in Panorama City since July, according to building manager Kevin Raye Larson. Cordero had told Larson and others in the building that he was a full-time student at Cal State Northridge.

All of those charged could face five-year prison terms and $250,000 fines if convicted.

Some of the checks issued apparently went out without normal inspections and verification, as part of an effort to get aid swiftly to the most severely affected areas. Lillis of FEMA defended the decision to expedite the assistance, saying the truly needy should not have to suffer delays because of a few greedy opportunists.

He noted that because of the intense publicity focused on the deaths and rescue efforts at the Northridge Meadows, FEMA “red-flagged” applications filed by victims there for special review.

Investigators collected information from a variety of sources, including mail carrier Michael Characky, who after the earthquake noticed that unfamiliar names were suddenly receiving mail, including FEMA material, at Northridge Meadows.

“I went to my postmaster and told him things are not coming up kosher. I’m getting names of people I know don’t live there,” Characky said Friday. He said the supervisor took the information to FEMA. Agents interviewed relatives of victims, several tenants and the manager of Northridge Meadows as part of the case.

Lillis said investigators are scrutinizing additional applications related to Northridge Meadows, as well as several other buildings that received considerable publicity.

News of the alleged scam outraged survivors of the Northridge Meadows collapse. “God, that makes me so angry,” said Erik Pearson, 26. “We got some (aid) for rent, but right now we’re in an empty apartment except for furniture from relatives and friends.”

“I don’t understand (anyone) doing that,” added former tenant Beverly Reading, who like Pearson has received $2,300 from FEMA so far. “It’s just like people trying to go into our building to steal.”

“It never occurred to me that someone could do something like that,” said Hyun Lee, who lost her husband and son in the apartment where Cordero allegedly claimed to have suffered losses. “If he really needed it, I wish he could have used it. . . . If he was just trying to take advantage of my tragedy, then he needs to be punished.”

Times staff writer David Colker contributed to this story.