NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A former employee of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans was sentenced Dec. 16 for wire fraud and making false statements.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 47-year-old Leesa Augustine will have to pay $94,972 in restitution, along with six months home detention followed by five years of supervised release. She pled guilty to three counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements by lying to investigators.
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In one fraud scheme, Augustine, who was also a New Orleans Police Department reserve officer, billed a police detail customer for hours not actually worked. During some of the times she was supposed to be working the police detail for the Downtown Development District, she used her SWBNO-issued computer to conduct a second fraud scheme where she obtained a mortgage loan and federally funded assistance for low-income homebuyers. She created fake documents, including a fake W-2 form, fake pay stubs and fake bank statements.
In a third scheme, Augustine obtained federally funded unemployment benefits by concealing her Senior Special Agent income. In a fourth scheme, she obtained federally funded emergency rental assistance by submitting a fake lease and a termination letter from a fake employer…