LOS ANGELES – United States Attorney Bill Essayli today announced the formation of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, which will investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption involving funds allocated toward the eradication of homelessness within the seven-county jurisdiction of the Central District of California.This task force will be comprised of federal prosecutors from the Major Frauds Section, the Public Corruption and…

WASHINGTON DC— Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an audit report examining the Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority’s (PRHFA) Homebuyer Assistance Program (HBA). The HBA program was developed by the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (PRDOH) to incentivize families to stay in Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria by providing eligible applicants with closing…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Robert Kirby Wells, 64, of Woodland, pleaded guilty today to one count of aggravated identity theft, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.According to court documents, Wells served as an insurance broker for a company located in Denver, Colorado, that owned multifamily and commercial properties throughout the United States. Wells was responsible for obtaining several types of insurance coverage for the company’s…

Tjoman Buditaslim, Travis Holasek, Jose Alfonso Tellez, and Jose De Jesus Martinez are Alleged to Have Prepared and Submitted Fraudulent Loan Applications Resulting in More than $55 Million in Residential MortgagesSAN FRANCISCO - A federal grand jury has indicted Tjoman Buditaslim (a/k/a “Joe Lim”), Travis Holasek, Jose Alfonso Tellez, and Jose De Jesus Martinez, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in…

WASHINGTON DC— Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an audit examining HUD’s efforts to prevent duplication of benefits when using Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery and Mitigation (CDBG-DR/MIT) funds. HUD and more than 30 other federal agencies are responsible for providing money and other resources to states and territories impacted by natural disasters,…

A California real estate executive pleaded guilty yesterday to engaging in an extensive multi-year conspiracy to falsify financial statements. According to court documents, Tyler Ross, 37, formerly of Michigan, served as co-chief executive officer of ROCO Real Estate LLC and ROCO Management LLC, both of which are based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The ROCO companies, and related entities, operated as a commercial real estate firm engaged in…

WASHINGTON – Nicole Freeman Smith, 51, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, pleaded guilty today in Superior Court to one felony count and one misdemeanor count of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult or elderly person (FEVA) for stealing more than $133,000 from two elderly District residents suffering from cognitive impairment. The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, and Special Agent…

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Gregory Finkelson with conspiracy, theft of government property, and money laundering, announced United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Special Agent in Charge Mark Kaminsky, and IRS-Criminal Investigation…

      WASHINGTON DC—Apex Waukegan LLC (Apex), a multifamily housing landlord receiving rental assistance subsidies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Integra Affordable Management LLC (Integra), Apex’s affiliated management agent, were ordered to pay $1,258,671 in civil money penalties for breaching their Housing Assistance Payment Contract (HAP contract) by knowingly failing to maintain…

The United States has filed a complaint under the National Housing Act of 1934 (NHA) against Bob Dean Jr. and several affiliated corporate entities for misappropriating and misusing the assets and income of four nursing homes in Louisiana before and after Hurricane Ida’s landfall in August 2021. The four nursing homes, all of which were owned and operated by Dean and his companies, and had loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA…

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced the sentencing of a Los Angeles broker, who was involved in a mortgage loan fraud scheme in Southern California. The broker, Alex Ashod Dadourian, defrauded lenders by using forged documents and fraudulent records to obtain more than $8 million in mortgage loans for his clients in order to earn commissions for himself. Today, he was convicted on 91 felony counts of mortgage…

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned an indictment against German Antonio Lopez-Velasquez, 55, of Modesto; Marko Antonio Lopez, 27, of Modesto; and Lisa Marie Santos, 48, of Long Beach, charging them with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. Lopez-Velasquez was also charged with witness tampering. He is alleged to have attempted to persuade an individual to make false…

WASHINGTON – Guild Mortgage Company has agreed to pay the United States $24.9 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the common law by knowingly breaching material program requirements when it originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Justice announced today.  Guild Mortgage Company is…