Prison Time for Mississippi Man Guilty of Oil Spill Fraud

A 46-year-old Gautier, Miss., man has been sentenced to prison for five months and ordered to repay $26,000 for oil spill recovery money he received by fraud.

The Sun Herald reports Vester Ray Bassham also was sentenced this week to five months of home confinement with electronic monitoring after his prison term is up. He will be on post-release supervision for three years.

Bassham received the money in 2010 and 2011 after claiming he lost earnings from his job as an electrician for Torguson Construction in Jackson County. The money was wired to a bank account in Biloxi.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office say Bassham was not an electrician and there is no known company by that name.

He pleaded guilty in December.