Man Pleads Guilty to Bilking FEMA Funds

A former residential manager accused of bilking developmentally disabled clients of their disaster relief checks after the 1994 Northridge earthquake pleaded guilty this week, the United States attorney’s office said.

Richard Morgan, 61, of Reseda pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to three felony charges of converting FEMA funds for his own use.

Morgan compensated the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the entire $8,100 that he took but still faces a federal prison term ranging from 10 to 16 months when he is sentenced in October, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan Hochman, the prosecutor in the case.

“This is a guy who thought if he paid back the money nothing would happen to him,” said Hochman.

“He’s finding out that that is not the case.”

Morgan was employed as a live-in manager at Valverde, a Reseda facility that provided housing and supervision for adults with disabilities such as Down’s syndrome and cerebral palsy, when the thefts occurred. He persuaded several residents who had claims with FEMA for personal items damaged in the earthquake to sign over their relief checks to him.

Morgan then deposited the checks into his personal account and spent more than $5,000 of the money to buy a car and make purchases at Circuit City, a U.S. attorney’s investigation found.

“I was playing a game with the government,” Morgan said in a signed statement. “I thought I could get away with it because I didn’t think FEMA could give me the money and then take it away. I thought that the worse that could happen [is] I would get sued by the government and pay the money back.”