NC woman pleads guilty to false Gulf spill claim

RALEIGH, N.C. – The first person accused of submitting a false Gulf oil spill compensation claim has pleaded guilty to several charges.

Court records released Tuesday show Charlotte Johnson of Fayetteville admitted to two counts of submitting false claims to a federal agency, eight counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. The 41-year-old was the first person in the country to be charged over a submission to the oil spill's Gulf Coast Claims Fund Facility. Authorities say she falsely claimed to have been fired from a New Orleans job she never had.

Prosecutors say she previously submitted other false claims after Hurricane Katrina, California wildfires and storms in Tennessee and Georgia. Court records show the claims totaled more than $75,000.