The numbers are coming in

and, as we said last year, they're not good as regards FEMA's payments to victims of Katrina and Rita. The General Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that 16% of the $6 billion given to hurricane victims went to those perpetrating a fraud. Some examples:

• payments to people who lived at UPS stores and cemeteries
• payments to people not displaced
• payments to people in jail
• paying for hotel and rental assistance to the same people at the same time

That adds up to about $1 billion of our money.