Man, 61, Indicted in Theft of FEMA Funds

A 61-year-old Reseda man was indicted by a grand jury Friday on seven counts of theft of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds from residents of a home for the mentally ill.

Richard G. Morgan, a former full-time employee at Valverde, a residential care facility for mentally disabled people in Reseda, faces a sentence of up to 70 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1.75 million, Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said.

Morgan is accused of “knowingly converting to his own use money of the United States, that is, approximately $6,900 of temporary housing funds” supplied by FEMA to three Valverde residents, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Morgan, who is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at the U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles, deposited the residents’ FEMA checks into his personal bank account, according to the complaint.

When the FEMA checks arrived in the mail, Morgan and the applicant both endorsed them. Morgan then deposited the checks in his account at Great Western Bank, according to the investigator’s affidavit.

After an interview with a federal investigator, Morgan signed an affidavit stating that he “was playing a game with the government.” He signed another statement admitting to “knowingly converting for his own use FEMA disaster funds,” investigators said.

“This indictment shows that the federal government is continuing to investigate and prosecute all abuses of federal disaster relief” funds, Hochman said.