(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: OAG, NJ) TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that five additional individuals were charged criminally today 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 50 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the five individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is...

(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: USAO, MD) Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Alberic Okou Agodio, age 31, of Bethesda, Maryland, today to 61 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, arising from a mortgage fraud scheme in which he used the names of immigrants and students, along with false financial information, to obtain $3.8 million in home mortgage...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a federal grand jury in Bridgeport has returned an indictment charging TIMOTHY W. BURKE, also known as “Bill Burke,” “William Burke,” “Kerry Saunders,” “Pat Riley,” “Jim Caldwell,” “Jim Saunders,” “Tom Morrisey,” “Jimmy,” “Phil Burke,” “Phil,” “Burt,” “James Burke,” and “M. Soler,” 64, of Easton, with fraud, tax, money laundering and...

(Source: presstelegram.com) A Lakewood woman has been found guilty of real estate fraud, causing $662,000 in losses to lenders. Felicia Muhammad, 45, was convicted on five felony counts for lying to banks that funded mortgages for three properties that later went into default, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. At the time of the fraud, she was a licensed real estate broker living in Long Beach. Muhammad was convicted Friday...

(Source: USAO, CT)Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that SERJ GEUTSSOYAN, also known as “Anthony Kirk,” 33, of Santa Ana, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to conspiring to defraud homeowners across the United States who were seeking mortgage loan modifications. According to court documents and statements made in court, GEUTSSOYAN and others...

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

(Source: USAO, LA) BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced the convictions of RHODA RENAE ROBERTSON, age 47, and LOUELLA ROBERTSON, age 68, both of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who pled guilty before U.S. District Judges Shelley Dick and John deGravelles, respectively, to theft of government funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.  RHODA ROBERTSON was convicted on February 16, 2016.  LOUELLA...

(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: nj.com) TRENTON — It may not be the best idea to sell low-grade or "reject" industrial products to the New York Department of Corrections, but that's what a part-owner of a Linden industrial and commercial supplies company admitted in federal court Thursday. Robert R. Dattilo, 61, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan that his company, Bayway Lumber, not only sold inferior products to the city corrections...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that MEHDI MOAREFIAN, a.k.a. “Michael Miller,” 36, and DANIEL SHIAU, a.k.a. “Scott Decker,” 30, both of Irvine, Calif., pleaded guilty yesterday in Bridgeport federal court to conspiring to defraud homeowners across the United States who were seeking mortgage loan modifications. According to court documents and statements made in court,...

(Source: USAO, MD) Greenbelt, Maryland – A federal grand jury returned an indictment late yesterday against Rene de Jesus de Leon, age 47, and his wife, Pedrina Rodriguez Bonilla, age 37, both of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Ana Maritza Gomez, age 43, of Hyattsville, Maryland, on charges arising from a residential mortgage fraud scheme. The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Deputy...

(Source: USAO, NJ) TRENTON, N.J. –A part owner of Bayway Lumber, a Linden, New Jersey, company that sold commercial and industrial products to numerous public and private entities, today admitted his role in a scheme to defraud customers out of $708,386, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Robert R. Dattilo, 61, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one...

(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: USAO SC) United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated that Michael Yant, age 40, of Lexington, South Carolina, was sentenced today in federal court in Columbia, South Carolina, for Wire Fraud, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.  United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., of Columbia sentenced Yant to five months of incarceration, to be followed by five months home confinement....

(Source: The State) A Lexington man was sentenced in federal court Monday for wire fraud. Lexington’s Michael Yant, 40, was sentenced to to five months in jail, followed by five months of home confinement, in U.S. District Court in Columbia, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday, adding Yant also was ordered to pay almost $270,000 in restitution. Yant committed mortgage fraud on 15 Federal Housing Administration loans, said Holliday,...

(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...