[StBernard] A little oopsie for Brad Pitt

[Westley Annis]

Recipient of aid from Brad Pitt charity once pled guilty to federal
 fraud charge
08:46 PM CST on Wednesday, December 5, 2007
WWLTV.com


 
 The people working on actor Brad Pitt's local charity were a little
 shocked after learning that one of the people they almost built a house
 for had pled guilty to a federal fraud charge earlier this year. 
 
 
 
Bill Haber / Associated Press
Pitt is launching his latest project to build affordable,
 environmentally friendly homes in the Lower Ninth Ward, which was
devastated by
 Hurricane Katrina.
 
 
 52-year-old Robert Green was the poster child at Pitt's unveiling of
 the "Make It Right" project on Monday. Green lost everything after the
 storm, including part of his family, but Pitt's staff said the actor
 didn't know about Green's past. 
 
 
 The U.S. Attorney's Office said Green pled guilty to falsifying
 documents for a home mortgage.
 He'll be sentenced in February. 
 
 
 In fact, the group hired a company out of Mississippi called
 Enterprise Corporation of the Delta to catch these types of things.
However, the
 company told Eyewitness News on Wednesday that the screening process
 had not started at the time of the press conference in order to weed out
 applicants. 
 
 
 "We're at the beginning of what will be included in the screening
 process," said Phil Eide, Vice President, Enterprise Corporation of the
 Delta. "We do have a question that we posed with our attorney whether we
 can turn down our mortgage loan based on a criminal background check." 
 
 
 Workers with the "Make It Right" project were unaware of Green's
 offense and Pitt's staff hopes that incident will not deter people from
 donating to the cause. 
 
 
 Meanwhile, Pitt's organization continues to accept donations on its
 website,  makeitrightnola.org. The project is not
 limited to the ninth
 ward and the more money they receive, the more houses they will build.