INDEPENDENCE — The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday that nursing home operator Bob Dean Jr. and several companies he owned and operated will pay $8.2 million to settle allegations that they violated federal laws during the troubled evacuation of residents in the path of Hurricane Ida in 2021.

The government alleges Dean and the companies misappropriated and misused assets. The nursing homes involved — Maison De’Ville Nursing Home in Houma; Maison De’Ville Nursing Home in Harvey; Maison Orleans Healthcare in New Orleans; and West Jefferson Health Care Center in Harvey — had loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, the agency said in a news release.

The FHA provides mortgage insurance on loans that cover residential care facilities, such as nursing homes. 

In 2023, the government said that in the five years before Ida, Dean funneled money that should have been used to prepare an evacuation site for nursing home residents to his personal bank accounts. When Ida approached, the homes and the 843 residents in the path of the storm weren't ready. More than a dozen residents died.

"(H)is nursing homes’ residents languished in squalor and did not receive adequate care, leading to the Louisiana Department of Health evacuating the nursing home residents from Dean’s warehouse and revoking Dean’s nursing homes’ licenses," the government said Tuesday.

“This settlement demonstrates the department’s continuing commitment to holding accountable those who put their own financial gain over the needs of our nation’s seniors,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will continue to take action to protect the integrity of federal programs designed to ensure that nursing home residents, who are among our most vulnerable citizens, receive appropriate care.”

The United States’ complaint stemmed from an investigation that the Justice Department initiated as part of its Elder Justice Initiative, which supports the efforts of state and local prosecutors, law enforcement and other elder justice professionals to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation, with the development of training, resources and information. Learn more about the Justice Department’s Elder Justice Initiative at www.justice.gov/elderjustice.

The government said the claims settled by this agreement are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability.