Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato today announced the arrest of Robert William Brower, Jr., 45, of Seaside Heights, NJ, after an eighteen month joint investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Economic Crimes Unit, the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General Division of Criminal Justice Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau.  As a result of this collaborative effort,...

BOSTON – 25 individuals were charged today in federal court in Boston as a result of a federal sweep targeting offenders of document and benefit fraud. Many of the defendants have prior criminal histories, including a convicted murderer who escaped from prison in Puerto Rico in 1994 while serving a 40-year sentence. 21 of the alleged defendants are unlawfully present in the United States. Dubbed “Double Trouble,” the investigation was conducted...

Lucresha Frank, 41, of Pontiac, a former manager of the Colony Arms apartments in Detroit, pleaded guilty to bribery, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced today. Schneider was joined in the announcement by Brad Geary, Special Agent in Charge, Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General and Timothy R. Slater, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2013, Frank...

(Source: www.crainsdetroit.com) A former manager of an apartment building in Detroit's English Village neighborhood has pleaded guilty to accepting cash bribes from hopeful tenants who were on a waiting list for low-cost housing units. Lucresha Frank, 41, admitted to soliciting and accepting the bribes as manager of Colony Arms, at 9303 E. Jefferson Ave., which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a...

Earlier today, Nagwa Elsilimy pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn to disaster relief fraud in connection with obtaining more than $750,000 in disaster relief from New York City’s Build It Back program and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  Today’s proceeding took place before United States District Judge Raymond J. Dearie. Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the...

BOSTON – A Roxbury man identified as John Doe was arrested today and arraigned in federal court in Boston. According to the indictment unsealed today, Doe repeatedly used a Social Security number that was not his, including to obtain a U.S. passport, which he then used to enter the U.S., and in support of a claim for Massachusetts unemployment insurance benefits. The indictment also charges that Doe obtained public housing benefits worth over $...

TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that a man who worked at a state-operated housing recovery center in Newark after Superstorm Sandy has been indicted on charges that he demanded thousands of dollars in bribes and fictitious fees from storm victims, fraudulently representing to the victims that he could expedite and/or increase the federal relief funds they received. The Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer...

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A mother and her daughter face federal charges as part of scams to get ill-gotten money from the U.S. Department of Education through filing fraudulent student aid paperwork. Elizabeth Westmoreland, 69, and Basheera Perry, 45, face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and theft of government property. Perry, who lives in Euclid, is charged with defrauding the...

TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal today announced that the Attorney General’s Office and its state and federal partners have charged four new defendants with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy, bringing the total number of defendants charged by the office in these cases to 116 since March 2014. “Any fraud against public assistance programs is deplorable, but these thefts were especially...

Benjamin G. Greenberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Rafiq Ahmad, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Nadine Gurley, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), Juan J. Perez, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), and Mary T. Cagle, Inspector General, Miami Dade County...

LOS ANGELES – A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer for abusing a program that provided discounted homes to law enforcement officers and misleading an investigator during a background investigation for security clearance. Kanit Kunnaragthai, 49, of Palmdale, was found guilty Thursday afternoon following a three-day trial in United States District Court. The jury found Kunnaragthai guilty of...

Joseph Fulmore, Jr., 45, of Clarksville, Tenn., was sentenced today to serve three years on federal probation and to pay $17,210.70 in restitution for making false statements in order to obtain public housing benefits, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran of the Middle District of Tennessee.  Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, Jr., also ordered Fulmore to perform 120 hours of community service. Fulmore was indicted on September 20...

United States Attorney John H. Durham and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen today announced that COMMUNITY RENEWAL TEAM and its president, LENA RODRIGUEZ, have entered into a civil settlement agreement with the United States and the State of Connecticut and have paid $362,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the federal and state False Claims Acts. Community Renewal Team (“CRT”) is a Hartford-based community action agency that...

(Source:Times of Northwest Indiana) HAMMOND — A former official of the Hammond Housing Authority has pleaded guilty to embezzling $633,628 in federal housing assistance money. U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II announced Friday morning he charged Michelle Seljan, 47, of Hammond, last month with theft of federal funds and tax evasion. She pleaded guilty April 27 before U.S. District Court Judge Jon E. DeGuilio in South Bend to both felony...

(Source: Niagara Gazette) BUFFALO -- In a courtroom packed with dozens of Niagara Falls community leaders and others, Stephanie Cowart told a federal judge she never expected that she would face the prospect of prison. "I lived my life, never expecting to appear in court under these circumstances," she said. "My life's mission, my life's passion has been to build strong communities. My priorities are God, family and community." But Cowart was...

(Source:News 12 New Jersey) TRENTON, N.J. -  Three more New Jersey residents have been charged with filing fraudulent applications for Superstorm Sandy relief. The new cases were announced Friday by the state Attorney General's Office. Officials say that Fair Lawn resident Diane DiCosmo falsely claimed a home in Lavallette as a primary residence. She fraudulently collected $177,000, according to the attorney general. Matawan couple Barry...

(Source: New Haven Register) ASBURY PARK, N.J. (AP) — The former executive director of a housing authority at the New Jersey shore is headed to prison for diverting more than $90,000 in state grant money so he could give himself unauthorized raises. Mark Holmes Sr. received a five-year sentence Friday and must pay $35,000 in restitution. The 56-year-old Lawrence Township man had pleaded guilty in January to theft. Monmouth County prosecutors...

McALLEN, Texas ‐ The former director of the La Joya Housing Authority and another man have been ordered to federal prison for a bid rigging scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick. Juan Jose Garza, 50, of La Joya, and Mexican national Armando Jimenez, 53, pleaded guilty to wire fraud May 3, 2017.  Today, U.S. District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa ordered Garza to serve 37 months in prison, while Jimenez received an 18-month-prison...

NEWARK, N.J. – The former executive director of a Newark-based childcare and community program and a partner in a political fundraising and consulting company was sentenced today to 38 months in prison for wire fraud and tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. Kiburi D. Tucker, 43, of Newark, previously pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud and...

McALLEN — He was just a cook at Stilettos Cabaret, a gentleman’s bar here, when Armando Jimenez met Juan Jose “JJ” Garza, the former executive director of the La Joya Housing Authority. Jimenez wanted to try something other than cooking to make a living, especially to help his daughter financially with school, so when Garza offered to work together in construction, he took it. This led to Jimenez and Garza now having to serve time in prison. On...