12 More Arrested in Probe of Phony Quake Claims : Assistance: U.S. officials say defendants sought aid totaling $64,000. Four others pleaded guilty last week.

Pressing their probe of bogus disaster assistance claims, a task force of federal agents in recent days has arrested 12 people for seeking thousands of dollars with phony claims of earthquake damage, officials said Tuesday.

The allegedly fraudulent claims, totaling more than $64,000, involved a range of misrepresentations to obtain Federal Emergency Management Agency housing grants and funds to cover lost personal property, according to complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. About $20,000, most of it in $2,300 temporary housing checks, was distributed to the defendants, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman, who is prosecuting the cases.

The arrests come on the heels of guilty pleas last week by four people charged with falsifying claims that they lived at the collapsed Northridge Meadows apartments, where 16 people died.

Most of those charged Tuesday also sought federal aid by falsely claiming to live at quake-damaged addresses. After the earthquake, two defendants sought state Department of Motor Vehicles identification cards with inaccurate addresses to bolster their claims, according to court documents. One defendant improperly received checks for two addresses, prosecutors said, and another filed a damage claim for a residence he had moved out of months earlier.

“This is our second strike and our second warning to those who would defraud the U.S. government and interfere with (the) delivery of funds to the eligible and the needy,” said Paul J. Lillis, FEMA’s assistant inspector general. Lillis said numerous investigations of fraud are continuing.

Also Tuesday, FEMA officials said about 2,000 relief checks totaling $6 million have been returned by recipients for various reasons. And next week the agency will send out nearly 3,000 letters seeking to recover several million dollars more from applicants it has deemed ineligible for aid, or who received checks in error.

FEMA has received more than 500,000 applications and sent out 265,000 aid checks totaling $687 million, officials said. Overall, $1.5 billion in earthquake aid has been disbursed to individuals and businesses by various government programs.

Although there is no way to estimate how much fraud may have occurred in the massive outflow of aid, officials insist that the vast majority of money has gone to those legitimately in need.

“We don’t expect that it’s a major, major problem,” said Morrie Goodman, FEMA’s director of emergency information and public affairs. “But the point here is that the federal government will not tolerate any attempt to take advantage of (this disaster). We consider one (fraud) to be a lot and intolerable.”

Tuesday’s arrests came from leads developed from a variety of sources, including 1,500 tips received by a FEMA hot line. Others were caught by FEMA officials reviewing and cross-checking claim information, as well as an alert mail carrier who noticed FEMA material going to people she did not recognize on her route.

Those charged Tuesday were: Rhonda Deshawn Andres, 21, of Los Angeles; John W. Barrett, 59, of Westchester; Michael J. Bermant, 26, of North Hills; Anthony S. Cooper, of Van Nuys; Tannis Eneeka Curry, 32, of Sun Valley; Marcus D. Holt, 23, of North Hills; Varouj Ratavoussian, 33, and Adrineh Aghadjian, 27, both of Glendale; Victoria Russell, 36, of Sherman Oaks; Melvin Artie Staples, 45, of Sherman Oaks; Shirley Thompson, 48, of Los Angeles, and Carl F. McConachie, 51, of Reseda.

Robert Carlin, an assistant federal public defender representing Cooper, Holt, Andres, Thompson and Ratavoussian, said he had not had time to review the cases but expected his clients to enter not guilty pleas. The attorney for Aghadjian declined to comment.