Kestin and O’Matz had already learned that neither FEMA nor the contractors would release identifying information about their inspectors. So they turned to the painstaking detective work of researching and checking allegations case by case. From Kestin’s anonymous source and other inspectors they had located through Internet research, the two had compiled a list of names and phone numbers of inspectors who allegedly had criminal records. They began making initial calls on Monday, December 13. Each name had to be checked with law enforcement authorities in the inspectors’ counties of residence. That meant calling courthouses and sheriffs’ offices all over the country. Kestin notes: “We don’t have access to FBI national criminal databases, so there is no one-stop-shopping to do for someone’s comprehensive criminal background.”

Before committing to a full-scale investigation, however, they decided to test a small sample—a handful of the names on the list. If they got positive confirmations, that would indicate they were on to something potentially big. Within a few days, Kestin and O’Matz had reached police or courts in several counties where the inspectors in the sample lived, as well as the inspectors themselves, some of whom admitted to their own criminal pasts. They were eventually able to confirm that at least three or four inspectors were on the books for a variety of offenses. Demma and the reporters felt that these findings were not sufficient to publish, but did justify a search for more evidence.

So Kestin and O’Matz divided up the list of inspectors their source had claimed were criminals; each reporter was responsible for locating close to 50 people. First, they needed an address for each. To get that, Kestin and O’Matz used Accurint, a searchable database of dossiers on millions of people, which listed their current and previous addresses, names and phone numbers of neighbors and business associates, and other information.

The next step, locating and securing records, was considerably more difficult and time-consuming. Inspectors had often lived in several different places and traveled to disaster sites. This meant that locating records on one person could require searching in more than one location. Compounding this difficulty was the fact that public records laws varied from state to state. Some states were not required by law to release arrest records; some required reporters to retrieve such documents in person. Frequently, courthouse officials did not return reporters’ phone calls promptly, or at all. The two kept careful notes recording whom they had called about which inspector and when, so that they could remember to follow up with another phone call—or several.

When they were fortunate enough to locate records, they had to submit requests in writing and file expense reports for postal and processing fees. “It would... be like that all day long working down the list,” Kestin recalls. “Just to get a record on a case for one inspector can take 20 phone calls, two or three letters, maybe more.” It was tedious work that yielded results only infrequently, and the reporters could spend days on the phone and turn up nothing new.

Listen to Kestin describe the daily grind.
Length: 1 min 59 sec

Day after day for several months, from late December onwards, the reporters plodded through their lists of inspectors. They were grateful when new developments in the case allowed them to take a break from their hunt for records and cover breaking news. In early March 2005, for instance, federal prosecutors indicted 14 Miami-Dade County residents on fraud charges. One had moved out of her Miami-Dade County home before Hurricane Frances but claimed $12,359 in damages at the address—which had been condemned by the city weeks prior to the hurricane. ^[41]

By mid-April 2005, O’Matz and Kestin had located all the criminal records they thought possible. They had confirmed criminal histories for only 30 out of the 133 inspectors they had examined, but the number seemed high enough to them and to Demma to justify a long Sunday article on April 10—especially since among the inspectors' offenses were robbery, drug possession, embezzlement, and rape. “Some of the records were pretty astounding,” remarks Kestin. “And then you’ve got to wonder, why’s FEMA letting these guys go into your house?”

O'Matz on Criminals

Meanwhile, Maines had been working on the underpinnings for the corollary story on nationwide fraud against FEMA.