A former FEMA supervisor and the owner of a disaster services company were indicted Friday by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and witness tampering stemming from their participation in what the government contends was the illegal awarding of a contract worth up to $100 million to service and deactivate thousands of trailers in Plaquemines Parish in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
View full sizeA seemingly endless line of FEMA trailers heads into New Orleans by rail in December of 2005.If convicted of the conspiracy and wire fraud charges, former FEMA employee Robert Blevins, 74, of South Carolina, and 3-D Disaster Services Inc. owner David Dangler, 58, of Roatan, Honduras, face a maximum of 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Blevins also faces up to three years in prison on the witness-tampering charge.
Prosecutors also will attempt to recover $31 million paid to the disaster services company.
Blevins was an accounting property officer and contracting officer’s technical representative with the Federal Emergency Management Agency when he advised Dangler on how to successfully underbid for the contract in 2006, according to the indictment. During the time he was assisting Dangler’s company, he also was negotiating to work for it, the indictment said. More
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