National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF)

The National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) is the result of a partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and various law enforcement and regulatory agencies to form a national coordinating agency within the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice to improve and further the detection, prevention, investigation, and prosecution of fraud related to natural and man-made disasters, and to advocate for the victims of such fraud.

The NCDF was established in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region.  It is the national coordinating agency for all man-made and natural disasters.  NCDF’s Gulf Coast headquarters is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Since 2005, the NCDF has received over 92,000 complaints relating to disaster fraud from sources in 50 states, 6 U.S. territories, and 4 foreign countries involving over 100 natural and man-made disasters, to include hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, tornados, chemical spills and explosions, and earthquakes. In connection with Hurricane Katrina alone, federal prosecutors charged over 1,300 disaster fraud cases in 49 different districts.  The below examples include reported estimated damage and fatality information:

• Hurricane Katrina (2005):  $108 billion in damages, over 1,800 fatalities.
• Hurricane Rita (2005):   $10 billion in damages, 120 fatalities.
• Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill (2010):  $60 billion in damages, 4 fatalities.
• Haiti Earthquake (2010):  250K homes destroyed, 100,000 fatalities.   
• Hurricane Sandy (2012):  $75 billion in damages, 147 fatalities. 
• Hurricane Matthew (2016):  $15 billion in damages, 49 fatalities.