Retired Key West fisherman gets year for defrauding BP oil spill program
A retired Key West commercial fisherman who swindled $30,000 from the BP relief program set up after the 2010 oil spill will spend one year and one day in prison for fraud. Raul Rioseco, 73, was sentenced Tuesday at in Key West by Judge Jose Martinez, after taking a plea deal last month in which he admitted to one count of mail fraud. Rioseco, who has been retired since about 2004, was also ordered by the court to make reimbursement of $144,606. But federal prosecutors say he and his daughter combined raided nearly $500,000 from BP for purported income losses in Key West, which didn’t get a drop of oil from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. His daughter, Caridad Rioseco Alejandrez, awaits sentencing July 11 before Martinez in Key West, after prosecutors say she filed some 600 claims after the BP oil spill. Read the rest here 10:34
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