A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Nagwa Elsilimy and Ahmed Arafa with fraud by making false statements to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in connection with their obtaining more than $750,000 in disaster relief from New York City’s Build It Back program (BIB) and FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  The defendants allegedly misrepresented that a home in Staten Island, which they had abandoned months before the storm, was their primary residence at the time the superstorm devastated New York and New Jersey.  The defendants unlawfully obtained over $750,000 in aid intended for people displaced by the storm.  Elsilimy was arrested this morning, and her initial appearance is scheduled for this afternoon before United States Chief Magistrate Judge Roanne L. Mann.

The charges were announced by Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Christina Scaringi, Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG), Mark Tasky, Special Agent-in-Charge, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG), Washington Field Office, and Mark G. Peters, Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation (DOI)...