(Source: coshoctontribune.com) COLUMBUS - The former executive director and chief financial officer of the Coshocton Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) has pleaded guilty in a federal public corruption case, and another Coshocton resident has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to embezzle money.

Gregory J. Darr, 64, of Coshocton pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday to embezzling more than $431,000 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

According to court documents, the Coshocton housing authority received federal HUD money each year to provide housing to low-income households. Money was provided for traditional public housing programs like Section 8 vouchers, as well as for certain “tenant participation activities” like a resident council – an organization of tenants that represents other public housing residents and puts on programming to support them.

Darr served as the executive director of the CMHA Resident Council, even though he had also been serving as the executive director and chief financial officer of CMHA since 2001. Federal regulations prohibited him from serving in the resident council leadership capacity or from benefiting financially from the council.

Darr nor his attorneys returned an email from the Coshocton Tribune seeking comment on the case Tuesday.

“Over time, Darr consolidated power and authority over both CMHA and the resident council. Abuse of these positions of public trust enabled him to embezzle and convert federal funds and to conceal his crimes from others,” Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said in a press release.

Beginning in January 2012 and continuing through September 2017, Darr repeatedly embezzled money from the CMHA and the Resident Council operating accounts for his own personal gain and for the gain of co-defendant Eric L. Blackwell, 54, of Coshocton...