Man Accused of Defrauding FEMA of Disaster Aid Receives 18-Month Jail Sentence

A man who used an Enfield address to illegally receive disaster relief aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following a 2011 tornado in central Massachusetts has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for mail fraud.

Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly and Gregory K. Null, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, announced that Robbie Rossi, 42, formerly of Massachusetts and Nevada, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for fraudulently obtaining disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

According to court documents and statements made in court, a severe storm and tornado outbreak struck central Massachusetts on June 1, 2011. After a Presidential Declaration authorized FEMA to provide disaster relief funds to local residents, Rossi obtained more than $12,000 in disaster relief benefits by falsely representing that he lived at a residence on New Bridge Street in West Springfield, MA, that had been damaged by the storm. As part of the scheme, Rossi provided FEMA with false documentation of rent payments he claimed to have paid in the months following the storm. Between August 2011 and April 2013, Rossi received payments at various addresses that he supplied to FEMA, including a residence in Enfield.

Rossi was ordered to pay $12,718.60 restitution.

Rossi has been in custody since his arrest Jan. 14, 2014. On June 24 he pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

The case was investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with the assistance of the U.S. Secret Service, Las Vegas Field Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Sheldon.

Patch file photo.

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