The FBI arrested two Federal Emergency Management Agency employees Friday after each solicited $10,000 in cash kickbacks from a food services contractor, the U.S. attorney said.
The contractor, who was not immediately identified, notified the government of attempts to bribe him soon after he arrived in New Orleans at a FEMA camp in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said both suspects — identified as Andrew Rose and Loyd Hollman, both of Colorado — took the contractor into a locked room to discuss how they could artificially inflate the head count of FEMA workers taking meals at the camp, which would increase the contractor's revenue. They allegedly told the contractor they would need $20,000 in kickbacks to inflate the figures.
Hollman and Rose each were charged with soliciting bribes as public officials. Both were in custody Friday afternoon and Letten said prosecutors would argue that they should be held without bail as flight risks.