(Source: hotspringsdaily.com) Dear Editor, Friday’s Sentinel Record had an article describing the felony sentencing of the past Hot Springs Housing director Barbara Baer. Baer was sentenced to two years’ probation for embezzlement and fined puny a $500. What is missing from this article is a description of the complicity and irresponsibility of the majority of the Housing Authority board in allowing this mess to occur. In addition, to...

(Source: USAO, WA) A SeaTac man who used a second identity to defraud public assistance programs for more than 20 years was convicted late yesterday of multiple federal felonies following a three day jury trial, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.  TRAVIS EDWARD FISCHER, 49, lived with his girlfriend and three children in SeaTac, while also claiming benefits under the name Edward Travis Fisher in Seattle.  By pretending to be...

(Source: USAO, MS) Hattiesburg, Miss – Kenneth Fairley, 62, of Hattiesburg, and Artie Fletcher, 55, of Picayune, have been charged in a federal indictment with a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jerome R. McDuffie, HUD Special Agent in Charge Nadine Gurley, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in...

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) A Hub City pastor has been indicted in federal court on charges for defrauding the U.S. government. Rev. Kenneth Fairley was served with six-count indictment. Count 1 - Conspiracy to defraud the United States. Count 2 and 3 - Theft of government money. Count 4 - Conspiracy to commit money laundering. Count 5 and 6 - Engaging in monetary transactions. Fairley, pastor of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, appeared before...

(Source: heraldbulletin.com) ANDERSON – The son of an Anderson businessman was arrested Tuesday on suspicion he attempted to transfer Section 8 properties without the permission of his father, who has owned some of them for as long as 30 years. Madison County sheriff's deputies arrested Ben Thomas Jewell Jr., 54, 200 block of South Madison Avenue, Anderson, on preliminary charges of Class C felony forgery and Class D felony theft. He faces...

(Source: USAO, LA) LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that the former director of the Morgan City Housing Authority and two former employees were arraigned today on charges related to theft of half a million dollars. Charles E. Spann, 78, of Kingsport, Tenn.; and Diana L. Pace, 64, and Sandra L. Green, 59, both of Morgan City, La.; pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst. The...

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

  Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. Topic: "HUD Office of Inspector General Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request and HUD’s Top Management and Performance Challenges". You may view the hearing through the Senate Committee’s page at United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.

(Source: USAO, MA) BOSTON – Lucy Girard, 78, of Townsend, Mass., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston to stealing over $200,000 in Social Security and federal housing benefits. In February 2016, Girard was charged in a felony information.  U.S. District Court Senior Judge Rya W. Zobel scheduled sentencing for June 1, 2016. In 1994, Girard was listed as the informant of death on her mother’s death certificate when she...

(Source: Brooklyn District Attorney's Office) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, together with New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters, today announced in a 40-count indictment that a contractor, his subcontractor and a foreman have been variously charged with stealing over $1 million in wages by underpaying 27 employees who worked on a construction project in Brooklyn that was financed by the New York City...

(Source: USAO, LA) U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that FREDDIE ROSS, JR., age 37, of New Orleans, who performs under the stage name BIG FREEDIA, was charged in a one-count Bill of Information with theft of government funds. According to the Bill of Information, between about 2010 and continuing until December 2014, ROSS stole money to which he was not entitled from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. ...

(Source: nola.com) Big Freedia, the internationally famous New Orleans bounce music artist, has been charged with a felony count of theft of federal funds. Freedia, identified in court documents by her legal name of Freddie Ross, Jr., is accused of stealing more than $1,000 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development between 2010 and 2014. She faces a maximum prison term of 10 years and fine of $250,000. Freedia's attorney, Tim Kappel...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ANDREW ROSS, 58, of New Haven, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for paying nearly $350,000 in bribes to the former executive director of the West Haven Housing Authority in exchange for government contracts and...

(Source: local10.com) Local 10 investigation shows over-income families living in public housing - Click to watch video

(Source: The Southern Illinoisan News) CAIRO — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Monday morning that it is immediately taking possession of the Alexander County Housing Authority. HUD said in a statement released to the media around 10 a.m. that it is taking this action “following a years-long pattern of financial and operational mismanagement, poor housing conditions, and alleged civil rights violations against the...

(Source: USAO NY) Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Christina Scaringi, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development - Office of Inspector General (“HUD-OIG”), announced the unsealing of a Complaint against the property manager, CARL IMMICH, for engaging in fraudulent schemes to embezzle funds from Harriet Tubman Terrace Apartments (“Tubman Terrace”), a Section 8...

(Source: Ventura County Star) William Reed ran the city's emergency solutions grant program, which is part of the Oxnard Housing Department. The program helps homeless families and others get shelter and housing. Ventura County prosecutors said Reed abused his position of trust by misappropriating money that should have gone to the homeless. "He falsified documents so that checks could be issued to three unqualified individuals...

(Source: LA Times) Two executives at a Los Angeles-based real estate development company and two of their employees have been indicted on charges they defrauded government agencies of millions of dollars in funds for housing low-income families. The 67-page federal grand jury indictment says Salim Karimi and three others at Advanced Development and Investment Inc. engaged in a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain more than $50 million in loan...

FREEHOLD – The former executive director of the Asbury Park Housing Authority, who is also the ex-mayor of Lawrence Township, has been indicted on 38 counts of official misconduct and other charges, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced Monday. An investigation conducted by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office determined that while Mark W. Holmes, Sr. was serving as the executive director of the Asbury Park...

The former executive director of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp. (NWCDC) today admitted accepting approximately $999,000 in kickback payments in exchange for her assistance in awarding work to various vendors and contractors of the agency, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Linda Watkins Brashear, 56, of West Orange, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge José Linares in Newark federal court to Counts 1 and 5 of...