Last year, Dolly Parton set up a foundation to help people who lost their homes in the wildfires that ravaged Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and her beloved Smokey Mountains. Her charity has already handed out $9 million to the fire victims. But now, five people have been indicted after being caught in an elaborate scheme to allegedly defraud the charity of monies intended for real victims.

Rare Country has been following the story, which includes charges of money laundering, criminal conspiracy and felony theft. 

Last December, the legendary country singer used her Dollywood Foundation to establish the My People’s Fund to raise money for people who were displaced and lost their homes in the wildfires that claimed 14 lives and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses as the fires burned in November and December.

According to USA Today, Debra Kay Catlett, her son, Chad Alan Chambers, and three others — Rocco Boscalia, Ammie Lyons and Esther Pridemore — have all been charged in a conspiracy to defraud the My People’s Fund. The indictments were handed up by a Sevier County grand jury.

Chambers is allegedly the one who led the scam, using his mother’s database that listed cabin owners’ names and addresses. Catlett used the database in her work as a photographer for local real estate publications.

The scammers apparently collected at least $12,000 after they pinpointed which cabins had been burned, then used property tax records to draw up fake leases and forge the cabin owners’ signatures. The forged leases allowed them to obtain fake temporary drivers licenses through the Tennessee Department of Safety, which they then used as “proof” that they had been displaced by the fire. In reality, none of the people indicted had been affected by the fires, according to USA Today. Two did not even live in the affected county.

“It’s unfortunate but when something good happens, there’s always a handful who want to exploit things,” David Dotson, president of the Dollywood Foundation, told USA Today. “They went through extremely elaborate means.”

Dotson said the Dollywood Foundation quickly realized the temporary driver’s licenses could be used fraudulently, so the foundation stopped accepting them as proof of displacement.

Meanwhile, the organization’s good work continues. Dotson said each family legitimately displaced by the fire was given $1,000 per month for five months after the blaze and then $5,000 in the sixth month. Funds left over after that initial six-month commitment made by Parton and the foundation were then turned over to another wildfire relief organization, Mountain Tough. Dotson says Parton’s organization has helped 900 families and handed out $9 million since the fires.