(Source: Miami Herald) The Miami-based Carlisle Development Group, once the state’s biggest developer of affordable housing, had a reputation for building some of South Florida’s finest low-income apartments — including a tower in the historic black neighborhood of Overtown with after-school care and computer labs.
What no one knew was that its once-lauded leaders, principals Matthew Greer and Lloyd Boggio, stole tens of millions of dollars in U.S. government subsidies by inflating construction costs and receiving kickbacks from contractors, according to charges filed in Miami federal court Tuesday.
They even set up shell companies with the names of Marquesas Capital and Caesar and Cleopatra Investments to collect the illicit payments secretly, prosecutors said.
In total, Greer, Boggio and four other defendants were accused of plundering $36 million in U.S. tax credits to line their pockets from 14 government-subsidized projects built mostly in Miami-Dade County.
U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer, noting that the defendants were already guaranteed millions in fees from these projects, said they were “motivated by personal greed” to steal additional “federal funds intended for the construction of housing for the poor, the homeless and the elderly of South Florida.”
He said his office has recovered nearly $11 million in government funds stolen by the defendants...