A contractor from North Royalton was indicted for paying cash bribes to a City of Cleveland building official. Martin Fano, 69, was indicted on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud. According to the indictment: Fano owned and operated ABC Construction LLC, a business that provided demolition and construction services in the Cleveland area. The company did demolition work for the City of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank…

(Source: Cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio — A North Royalton contractor is charged with paying bribes to a former Cleveland official, as part of an expanding federal probe into corruption within the city’s demolition operations. A federal grand jury indicted ABC Construction owner Martin Fano Wednesday on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement that the 69 year old paid cash bribes to…

(Source: NEWS5CLEVELAND.COM) NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — A North Royalton contractor was indicted for allegedly paying cash bribes to a Cleveland building official, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. Martin Fano, 69, was indicted on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, according to the release. Fano, who owned and operated ABC Construction LLC, did demolition work for the City of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga…

(Source: crainscleveland)  A North Royalton contractor was indicted Wednesday, Feb. 6, by a federal grand jury for paying cash bribes to a Cleveland building official. Martin Fano, who owned and operated ABC Construction LLC, was indicted on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud. According to the indictment, ABC Construction, which did demolition work for the city of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Land Bank and others, paid bribes…

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former Cuyahoga Land Bank employee was indicted in federal court on charges that accuse him of helping a demolition company get contracts in exchange for performing improvements to his Cleveland Heights home. Kenneth Tyson, 48, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services fraud, three counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of bribery, the U.S. Attorney’s…

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced a federal indictment charging ROBERT ANTHONY COLEMAN, 45, and YOLANDA YVETTE COLEMAN aka YOLANDA YVETTE PITTMAN, 50, with multiple counts related to the theft of more than $248,000 of government funds. ROBERT COLEMAN is also charged with two counts of false statements and an additional count of Social Security fraud. They will make their initial appearances in U.S. District Court at a…

A former executive director of a Cleveland community development corporation was arrested this morning for embezzling more than $172,000 from the Collinwood and Nottingham Villages Development Corporation. Tamiko Parker, 46, of Cleveland, is scheduled to appear on Thursday at 2 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. She has been indicted on one count of theft of federal funds. Parker served as executive director of Collinwood and Nottingham…

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio — The former executive director of the Collinwood & Nottingham Villages Development Corporation was arrested by federal authorities Thursday on accusations that she stole money from the CDC. Tamiko Parker, 46, of Cleveland is charged with theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. The CDC, a nonprofit on the city’s East Side that develops and leases property, lost more than $172,000. She…

(Source: insidernj.com) 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 125 since March 2014. “Any fraud against public assistance programs is deplorable, but…

(Source: Dallasnews.com)  An obscure city housing agency has been awarding thousands of dollars of contracts — and in one case a bonus — to members of its board, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. The Dallas City Council may take steps to rein in such inside deals at its meeting Wednesday. The agency — the Dallas Housing Finance Corporation — is one of the city’s tools to address the lack of affordable housing for people with…

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 120 since March 2014. “Any fraud against public assistance programs is deplorable, but these thefts were especially…

The former head of the City of Cleveland’s demolition department was charged in federal court with soliciting and accepting bribes from contractors in exchange for preferential treatment. Rufus Taylor, 60, was charged in a criminal information with one count of bribery in a federally funded program and one count of extortion. According to the criminal information filed in U.S. District Court: Taylor was employed by the City of Cleveland as…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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: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…

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…