The United States has intervened in a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles and the CRA/LA (formerly the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles) alleging that they falsely certified compliance with federal accessibility laws in connection with claims submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for housing grants, the Department of Justice announced today. The accessibility laws allegedly violated...

(Source: sandiegouniontribune.com) Mental Health Systems, the San Diego charity that last year was the subject of allegations of misconduct and lavish spending on luxury hotels and limousines, failed to properly account for more than $140,000 in federal housing funds, a new audit states. “MHS did not allocate its payroll costs to Continuum of Care and Supportive Housing Program grants in accordance with program requirements,” U.S. Housing and...

(Source: Ocean City Patch) OCEAN CITY, NJ — Alesia Watson has been removed as the Executive Director of the Ocean City Housing Authority (OCHA). Watson, who pleaded guilty last week to embezzling between $6,500 and $15,000 in funds intended for use by OCHA from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was removed during OCHA’s meeting Tuesday night, according to published reports. Ocean City has also terminated its shared...

CAMDEN, N.J. – The executive director of the Ocean City, New Jersey, Housing Authority (OCHA) today admitted embezzling federal funds received by authority from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced. Alesia Watson, 54, of Galloway Township, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court to an information charging her...

BOSTON – A Milford woman was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with embezzling over $70,000 in rent payments owed to the Framingham Housing Authority (FHA). Rosa A. Famania, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris to five months in prison and three years of supervised release. In addition, Famania must complete five months in a residential or inpatient substance abuse facility upon her...

(Source: The Times) HAMMOND — A contractor hired in 2013 to improve Gary Housing Authority properties was indicted last week on charges alleging he provided counterfeit financial documents to secure the $347,950 contract. Ashley D. Dunlap, 54, of East Chicago, faces two counts of counterfeiting securities of a private entity, according to U.S. District Court records. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in July 2013 approved...

HAMMOND- Acting United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson announced an indictment charging Ashley D. Dunlap, 54, of East Chicago, Indiana with two counts of uttering a counterfeit security. The indictment alleges, in July 2013, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved federal funding for building renovations at the Delaney and Dorie Miller public housing projects operated by Gary Housing Authority (GHA). Dunlap’s...

(Source: kjas.com) Federal authorities have announced that they have just completed an investigation of The Jasper Housing Authority and its executive director, John Molt, and the feds say they have discovered a pattern of abuse of capacity, misused equipment, and over $91,000.00 in misused funds, and they say they’re demanding that it all be paid back.   In a report released by the Office of the Inspector General of the United States...

Source: victoriaadvocate.com By Jessica Priest April 4, 2017 at 10:42 p.m. Updated April 5, 2017 at 6 a.m Upcoming court dates for other defendants Debra Smith Gillespie, former executive director, May 3 Roger Earl Clark, maintenance director, May 1 David Keith Norrell, contractor, May 1 Robert Berry, contractor, May 15 Terre Horvath-Berry, wife of Robert Berry, May 15 One of six people charged with stealing from the Victoria Housing...

(Source: www.guampdn.com) A judge sentenced a former employee of the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority to 1 year and 1 day in prison for accepting bribes, but she will only spend 30 days behind bars. Antonia Mayo-San Nicolas admitted to taking bribes from tenants to qualify them for the federally-funded Section 8 housing program when she was a housing specialist for GHURA. Court documents state she took bribes between September 2014 and...

NEWARK, N.J. – A former salesman at Bayway Lumber, a Linden, New Jersey company that sold commercial and industrial products to numerous public and private entities, was charged today with defrauding Bayway Lumber customers and knowingly making false statements before a federal grand jury, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced. Adam Martignetti, 43, of South River, New Jersey, is charged by indictment with one count of...

(Source: The Guam Daily Post) Former Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority legal counsel Mark Smith denied to the GHURA board any financial interest that conflicted with his role with the agency, but an indictment alleged that he did have a conflict, which he tried to disguise through a series of allegedly fraudulent bank and real estate transactions. In March 2011, Smith executed a contract with GHURA to serve as its legal counsel, and "...

(Source: Kaum News) Unsealed in the District Court of Guam today, two men have been indicted in the federal court for 56 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft of government property, to name a few. Attorney Mark Smith was hired by GHURA as legal counsel in March 2011, and was prohibited from receiving funds directly or indirectly during his term. Court documents state he was a landlord under the Section 8 program and worked...

Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Source: Source: Victoria Advocate) By Jessica Priest March 7, 2017 at 10:36 p.m. The Victoria Housing Authority is in the midst of its fourth management shake- up in about two years. Its board of directors fired Louis Boldt during a Feb. 28 meeting. Boldt replaced longtime executive director Debbie Gillespie, who resigned in October 2015 after the Office of Inspector General found the housing authority had mismanaged more than $780,000 from...

(Source: nj.com) A former accountant for the City of Bayonne was sentenced to 21 months in prison today for accepting bribes in return for funneling hundreds of thousands in federal grant money to a local contractor. Anselmo "Rocky" Crisonino, 56, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $439,000 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced. Crisonino's sentencing comes three years after he appeared in...

TRENTON, N.J. – A Hudson County, New Jersey, man, who served as the senior accountant of the City of Bayonne Department of Community Development (CBDCD) was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for accepting $65,000 in bribe payments in exchange for his assistance in awarding projects funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Anselmo Crisonino, 56, of Bayonne, previously...

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that CARL IMMICH, formerly the property manager of Harriet Tubman Terrace Apartments, a Section 8 Housing Complex in Poughkeepsie, New York, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.  United States District Judge Cathy Seibel imposed today’s sentence. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated:  “Repeatedly and routinely, Carl Immich stole...

TRENTON –Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that five additional individuals have been charged criminally with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 81 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the five individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is continuing its...

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland-area contractor who paid his employees criminally low wages while working on projects for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in federal prison. Marcus Butler, who operated of L & B Electric of Northeast Ohio, lied on forms between 2011 and 2013 and said he paid his employees $126,514.80 more than he actually had when doing subcontracting work...