Ex-airport director pleads guilty in Katrina case

January 5, 2011 at 12:57p.m.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The former aviation director at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport has pleaded guilty in a Hurricane Katrina insurance fraud case.

Sean Hunter pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to obstruction of justice and awaits scheduled sentencing May 11.

Hunter and his wife were charged with trying to profit from a fraudulent claim after Katrina hit in 2005.

Prosecutors said Shauna Crowden Hunter contacted her insurance company and claimed her new BMW had been destroyed in the storm. In 2008, New Orleans traffic cameras photographed the BMW running red lights and officers later found the car hidden in the airport’s parking garage.

Attorney Arthur Lemann says Shauna Hunter plans to plead guilty in a related mail fraud case in Houston.