A 56-year-old Porter resident has been hit with a 20-count federal indictment for allegedly defrauding a disaster relief program to receive a newly built home valued at $435,000.
Sharai Poteet is accused of submitting fraudulent loan applications that claimed 11 people—including seven children and a disabled adult—lived in her household.
Recommended Videos
The applications allegedly secured her a custom seven-bedroom home funded through a program administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for Hurricane Harvey victims.
According to court documents, the home was the largest built by the program at that time.
The indictment also alleges Poteet filed three additional fraudulent disaster relief claims to FEMA for storms between 2021 and 2024. Investigators say she threatened to kill a whistle-blower in an effort to silence them and assaulted a federal officer while trying to flee during an operation to seize her cell phone.
If convicted, Poteet faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each of the seven counts of wire fraud. She could also serve up to 20 years for each of two obstruction of justice charges, eight years for assaulting a federal officer, and mandatory consecutive prison terms of two years for each of seven aggravated identity theft counts.
The case remains under investigation by federal authorities.