Hurricane funds 'spent on holidays and champagne'

Bogus claimants spent up to $1.4bn meant for hurricane victims on tropical holidays, champagne, a divorce lawyer and even a sex change, investigators in the United States have revealed.

The government funds given out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) after last year’s devastating Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were also used on diamond jewellery, season tickets to American football games and “adult erotica products“.