Evening star., 1939-01-03
Officials Study
Prosecution. Of
Relief Frauds
List of 100 Coses
Is Repeatedly Made
By Burdette Lewis

Is Repeatedly Made
By Burdette Lewis
BACKGROUND
Belief OF members of Congress
that District public relief load"
1oas TOO heavy resulted in appro-
priation OF $4,000 BY last Con-
gress to Investigate entire relief
setup. First tWo sections of re-
port ON surrey. submitted to Con-
gress yesterday and Sunday by
Burdette G. Le1Dis, the inuesti-
gator, charged fraud and "chisel-
1ng' in District relief.
District officials, relief investiga-
tors and members of the United
States District Attorneys Office to-
day considered possibilities of
prosecution of relief clients who al
legedly have obtained assistance
funds through Misrepresentation,
but uncertainty prevailed as to what
would be done.
There were reports that Burdette
G. Lewis had given list of 100 or
more cases showing evidence of
fraud in a section of his report
which is to be released later in the
week. The relief investigator said
today there were more than 100
cases but that this list were not all
fraud" cases, but involved other
forms of irregularities.
United States Attorney David A.
Pine announced that a number of
cases had been filed with his Office
during the last year by District
agents, but to his recollection none
of them was found of character to
warrant prosecution Welfare Di-
rector ElWood V. Street estimated
the number of cases presented to Mr..
Pine totaled between 40 and so.
Commissioners Melvin C. Hazen
and David McCoach, jr., consulted
today with Corporation Counsel Eli
wood H. Seal and Auditor Daniel j.
Donovan and decided to withhold
final action on any phase of the in
vestigation report until careful study
SOulu NC given 10 It's details.
Adopt Seals Opinion.
However, the Commissioners TODAY
adopted an opinion by Mr.. Seal,
which had been requested by Mr..
Street, which would leave to the
District attorneys Office decision as
to who should sign informations in
any cases that might be found to
merit prosecution
This decision ends an uncertainty.
so far as it applies to the Judgment
OF the. municipal government, as to
who was responsible for starting
prosecution-a difficulty under
which the welfare and relief off,
clals have labored for some weeks.
Former Commissioner George E.
Allen, who as head of the District
w. P. A. and its predecessor. the
Civil Works Administration of the
District, and as the Commissioner in
charge Of welfare and relief, took
cognlzancc of the Lewis investiga-
ton report today to state:
In the hysteria of accusation if
indeed there be per cent of bad
relief cases, let's not forget the other
95 per cent"
Will Prepare Summary.
Mr.. Pine, after reading accounts
OF the allegedly fraudulent relief
cases, directed two of his assistants
who have been handling such cases
for him to prepare a summary of
any cases they might have on file.
The assistants are Harry L. Under
wood and Karl Kindleberger.
The District attorney said his
recollection was that one of the
cases in which there was found to
be an apparent Misrepresentation
or fraud concerned an elderly man
who had concealed from the relief
case worker the fact that he had
laid away a sum of about 500 so
as to assure decent burial when
he died
Mr.. Pine said he recalled another
case in which widow with eight
children was accused of having
concealed from the case worker the
fact that she had small group in
surance policy payment which her
husband had provided for the fam
lily.
There may be other cases of mis-
representation or fraud, such as
these" said Mr.. Pine, but We SIM
ply cannot prosecute in such in
stances. l do not believe that prose-
cution would be justified, and I
think 1 know what the jury and
the judge would do in such cases.
1T is my opinion that such mis-
representation should he stopped at
its inception, rather than to attempt
prosecutions after they have been
brought to light. OF course, when-
ever bad case is presented to my
offlce there is no doubt as to what
action we would take. We will
prosecute"
Welfare Director Street promised
that if and when his department
is given specific charges in specific
cases they would be promptly in
vestigated. He said he and the well
fare board has yet received no Off
cial information on any point on the
investigation report of Mr.. Lewis and
his staff
Says Record Is Good.
Commenting on newspaper reports
that Mr.. Lewis report would contain
a list of 100 or more cases, the well
fare director said that since there
were slightly less than 5000 relief
cases of all kinds that the percentage
Of fraud" would amount to 1.6 If
there were but about 100 fraud"
cases listed.
II would think this is a pretty
good record" he said, 'if this is all
of the fraud that has been found, in
view of the facts that Government
relief was developed at extraordi-
narily fast pace to meet human
(See RELIEF, Page A-90
~
Two Sought in $720