An Arizona woman was among five people recently arrested under federal charges in suspected federal disaster relief fraud related to January’s devastating Southern California wildfires.
Katrina Woods, 33, of Maricopa, is suspected of submitting a fraudulent $23,441 disaster relief claim on Jan. 30, an April 25 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Woods is accused of listing a nonexistent Altadena, California, address as her primary home and falsely claiming it was destroyed in the Eaton Fire , the DOJ said. Between February and March, Woods made reservations at a downtown Los Angeles hotel and another in nearby Hawthorne, according to the DOJ.
The woman’s stay at the Los Angeles hotel was halted March 10 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and she was taken into custody April 23 in Arizona on “an unrelated matter,” the DOJ’s new release said…