A former Chelsea Housing Authority manager and a consultant face possible prison sentences after being found guilty on Wednesday of conspiring to defraud the government by rigging biennial federal inspections of apartments to make sure the housing agency received a high performance rating.

“This ends another chapter in holding accountable those who engaged in the extensive abuse of the public trust at the housing authority,” said Thomas K. Standish, who became chairman of the board of commissioners that governs the Chelsea Housing Authority in 2011, after the former board was forced to resign.

A jury found that James H. Fitizpatrick, the agency’s former director of programs to modernize and improve apartments, and Bernard J. Morosco, a consultant, improperly obtained an advance list of the apartments scheduled to be inspected by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development...