Ex-FEMA, aid workers indicted in fraud

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Federal authorities said Tuesday that they have arrested two former officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the former president of a major disaster relief contractor, accusing them of bribery and fraud in the efforts to restore electricity to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Puerto Rico said the then-president of Cobra Acquisitions LLC, Donald Keith Ellison, gave FEMA’s deputy regional director airline flights, hotel accommodations, personal security services and the use of a credit card.

In return, Ahsha Nateef Tribble “used any opportunity she had to benefit Cobra,” said U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez, including accelerating payments to the company and pressuring local power authority officials to award it contracts.

Ellison also gave a job to a friend of Tribble’s, Jovanda R. Patterson, who had been FEMA deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico before resigning in July 2018 to work for Cobra Energy LLC, according to the indictment. Cobra Acquisitions and Cobra Energy are subsidiaries of Oklahoma City-based Mammoth Energy Services Inc.

Tribble was FEMA’s primary leader in trying to restore electric power after Hurricane Maria destroyed the power grid in 2017. Cobra was given contracts worth about $1.8 billion. Authorities said Tribble was arrested Monday in Florida, and Ellison was detained in Oklahoma.

AP/The Messenger-Inquirer/GREG EANS Tad Bunker (left) and Derek Masterson with Clear Solutions in Evansville, Ky., clean the inside windows at the Owensboro Convention Center on Tuesday.