According to ABC News’ investigative blog, The Blotter:
A Texas hotel owner says his medical condition led him to unintentionally defraud the federal government over Katrina disaster relief claims.
Daniel Yeh, the owner of the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, Texas, had enrolled in a FEMA program that reimbursed hotels for providing free lodging for Katrina evacuees. Yeh is accused of filing false claims totaling over $200,000 for guests who were not evacuees.
Yeh is facing trial for 22 counts of wire fraud and 17 counts of filing false claims. But Yeh’s attorney, Robert Bennett, said his client’s judgment at the time was severely impaired by a pre-existing brain tumor that led him to misunderstand the rules of the FEMA program. According to Bennett, “The brain tumor affected his frontal lobe, the center for rational thought — essentially all executive decision-making.”
Beats former Bush adviser Claude Allen’s excuse by a mile.
