Sentencing is set Friday for an East Hollywood man who unlawfully obtained more than $64,000 in federal disaster-relief funds by falsely claiming his property was damaged in the wildfires that struck Los Angeles County in January 2025.
Delvonne Johnson, 32, pleaded guilty in downtown Los Angeles last year to a federal charge of fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits.
Victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires, including renters who lost their residences, could qualify for a one-time payment of $750 noted as a Federal Emergency Management Agency relief payment, $43,600 for other assistance and housing for up to 18 months at varying rates. Homeowners were also potentially eligible for additional relief up to $43,600 for home repair.
Johnson submitted a bogus claim for FEMA benefits related to the Palisades fire in February 2025, listing an address in Pacific Palisades as a purported home he owned, federal prosecutors said. Later that month, FEMA sent Johnson nearly $64,138 in federal disaster relief.
On April 2, 2025, law enforcement interviewed the property’s actual owner, who stated she had lived at that residence since 2015, that it was her primary residence, and she was living there at the time of the Palisades Fire, court papers show.
According to federal prosecutors, she also insisted she never rented the property out to anyone and did not know Johnson. The true owner further stated when she submitted a disaster assistance application to advise authorities that her house had been destroyed, FEMA notified her that someone already filed such a claim on her property’s behalf.
The Eaton and Palisades wildfires that started Jan. 7, 2025, burned a total of nearly 60,000 acres, destroyed more than 16,000 structures and resulted in the deaths of 30 people.