Miami, FL (AP) - A Florida man has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to attempting to defraud the BP oil spill claims fund.
The sentence was imposed Wednesday by a federal judge on 37-year-old Eliu Gonzalez of Florida City. He pleaded guilty in October to a wire fraud charge.
BP created its $20 billion claims fund to compensate losses stemming from the April 2010 oil rig explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Prosecutors say Gonzalez submitted a claim in 2010 of more than $110,000 in supposedly lost income.
Part of the claimed losses included a series of receipts from a Miami fish market for yellowtail snapper that Gonzalez admitted in court were false. Gonzalez also gave crewman false paperwork for their own claims.