NEW ORLEANS – In one of the more brazen schemes to defraud BP in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a North Carolina man has been indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering after allegedly creating a web of paperwork to substantiate a multimillion dollar claims payment for a non-existent luxury resort.
The Department of Justice announced the indictment of Michael Rosella, 45, of Wilmington, N.C., yesterday. Rosella is alleged to have submitted a $2.3 million claim to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility on behalf of the non-existent Bayou Barataria Sportsmen’s Resort, which he presented as a luxury hotel and sports fishing business located in the Barataria Basin on Louisiana’s coast.
On Nov. 2, 2010, Rosella, who was a resident of Washington, D.C., submitted a claim through Se7en LLC, a company owned by him, purporting to be the representative of the Bayou Barataria Sportsmen’s Resort and seeking $2,012,238 in damages. Rosella went so far as to create a website for the fictitious resort to justify the claim.
