Fraudsters stole $1bn of Hurricane Katrina relief cash

About US$1bn (£542m) in relief meant for victims of Hurricane Katrina was lost to fraud, with bogus claimants spending the money on Hawaiian holidays, football tickets, diamond jewellery and Girls Gone Wild porn videos, the US Congress was told yesterday.

"We expected it, but we didn't expect it on this magnitude," Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the house homeland security investigations panel, told reporters. "It's an assault on the American taxpayer."

And everyone else in the world who chipped in, if I may add.