Contractor fraud up to $3M

The Clarion-Ledger, 5/25/8

After eight feet of water flooded her Biloxi home, Janet Meaut thought she had found the contractor she needed to get her life back together.

Instead, she and her husband ended up losing $15,000.

Meaut, like thousands of other Mississippians whose homes were damaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was swindled by a shady contractor.

The state attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division has investigated 1,039 Katrina-related home-repair fraud cases. At least 89 arrests have been made in cases totaling $3 million in losses, Attorney General Jim Hood said.

Hood expects the number of cases and arrests to increase.