The woman is accused of fraud after she allegedly collected money on claims that her home was unlivable from flood damage.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a career director-level employee at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with allegedly attempting to defraud the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and lying to federal agents.
The DOJ announced the charges on March 12 for Serina Baker-Hill, 55, of Detroit.
She is accused of fraudulently applying for FEMA assistance after claiming her home was unlivable from basement flood damage.
After a series of floods affected the Detroit area in August 2023, FEMA allowed residents to apply for assistance.
Baker-Hill applied, and an agency inspector verified flood damage in her basement.
The CBP employee then said she was not able to live safely in her home on Oak Drive in Detroit while it underwent repairs, and FEMA approved assistance benefits.
“The approval letter from FEMA indicated that the rental assistance money was to be used solely to help Baker-Hill pay rent and essential utility costs while she was in temporary housing,” the DOJ stated in a press release.
Baker-Hill’s bank records indicated that none of the FEMA money went towards rent, hotels, or utility expenses, according to the DOJ.
Home video surveillance showed that she and her husband continued to live in the home after receiving FEMA’s rental assistance funds, the DOJ stated.
After she was interviewed by the FBI and CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), Baker-Hill said she had never committed any kind of illegal activity and had never defrauded the federal government.
The DOJ’s criminal complaint accuses her of having “the intent to defraud” and using “communications or caused another to use wire communications in interstate commerce in furtherance of the scheme.”
The alleged crime was discovered while the FBI was investigating Baker-Hill’s husband, Maurice Hill, for narcotics trafficking and other offenses, according to the complaint.
Due to her employment at CBP, officials opened a concurrent probe into Baker-Hill to “investigate her involvement with Maurice’s narcotics trafficking,” which included a wiretap.
During those investigations, authorities discovered that both Baker-Hill and her husband allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud FEMA after the flood occurred on Aug. 24, 2023, the complaint states.
Maurice Hill had issued a FEMA assistance claim for another house the couple owns on Monte Vista Drive, saying it was his primary residence, according to the DOJ.
When authorities investigating him determined that he lived with Baker-Hill at the house on Oak Drive, his FEMA claim was flagged as indicating fraud.
Baker-Hill had allegedly submitted the FEMA assistance request for their primary residence on Oak Drive, which sustained the basement flood damage.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the case in a post on the social platform X.
“This is part of the new FBI’s renewed efforts to crack down on public corruption and deliver accountability for the American people,” Patel wrote. “Justice will be done.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eaton P. Brown is prosecuting the case.
Acting United States Attorney Julie A. Beck announced the charges on March 12 alongside Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, and Daniel Altman, executive director of CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.