We audited the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority’s Non-Federal Match Program for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds.  This Match Program was developed to assist non-Federal entities in paying for their share of projects that addressed unmet needs because of the 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria.  We initiated this audit due to the $415 million of CDBG-DR funds allocated by the Authority and to…

We audited the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority’s monitoring of its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)-funded activities.  We initiated the audit because of the large amount of CDBG-DR funds awarded to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the 2017 disasters and to aid in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) strategic objective to support effectiveness and accountability in long-term disaster…

We audited Luther Towers II because it was a high-risk multifamily project that received low inspection and financial assessment scores on our multifamily risk assessment for projects within our region and we had never audited it.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the owner managed the project in accordance with its regulatory agreement and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements. The owner of Luther…

We audited the Virgin Islands Housing Authority’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program’s housing quality standards as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2015 audit plan.  We selected the Authority because it had a large program receiving more than $14 million in 2014. Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority’s inspection process adequately ensured that its units complied with housing quality standards. The…

We audited Virgin Islands Community AIDS Resource & Education, Inc.’s (VICARE) Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program.  This audit was the result of a referral from the San Juan Office of Community Planning and Development.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether VICARE spent HOPWA funds in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements and for eligible…

We audited the Wilmington Housing Authority's administration of its Public Housing Capital Fund Recovery Act-Funded Formula and Competitive Grants that it received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). We selected the Authority for audit because it received a $5.2 million Public Housing Capital Fund Formula (Recovery Act-Funded) grant and two Public Housing Capital Fund Competitive (Recovery Act-Funded)…

We audited the Wilmington Housing Authority’s (Authority) administration of its housing quality standards inspection program for its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program as part of our fiscal year 2009 audit plan. The audit objective was to determine whether the Authority adequately administered its Section 8 housing quality standards inspection program to ensure that its program units met housing quality standards in accordance with U.S.…

We audited the Newark, Delaware, branch office (branch office) of J.P. Morgan Chase bank (J.P. Morgan Chase), a supervised direct endorsement lender approved to originate Federal Housing Administration (FHA) single-family mortgage loans. We selected the branch office because its default rate was above the state’s average default rate. Our objective was to determine whether J.P. Morgan Chase complied with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

We audited the Newark, Delaware, branch office (branch office) of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (Wells Fargo). The branch office is mainly responsible for underwriting loans for 22 Wells Fargo sales branch offices in Pennsylvania. We selected the branch office because of its relatively high default rate, compared with the average default rate for the state of Pennsylvania. Our objective was to determine whether the branch office complied with U.S.…

St. Croix, VI – United States Attorney Delia L. Smith announced today that Department of Education Director of Maintenance, Davidson Charlemagne, 50, and his wife Sasha Charlemagne, 44, both of St. Croix, were arrested after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging the pair with government program fraud, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment also charges former Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority (“VIHFA”)…

St. Thomas, VI – Dozens of federal Inspector General officials gathered in St. Thomas on March 22-23, 2023, for the first Virgin Islands Office of Inspector General Spring Symposium. The federal oversight and law enforcement officials spent two days collaborating and sharing information as part of their ongoing commitment to protect federal funds awarded to the Virgin Islands. “As a result of Hurricanes Irma and Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic…

WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss announced today that landlords Goodfish Enterprises, LLC; Reliant Property Management Company; and Christopher Lukacs have agreed to pay $430,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act during their participation in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), commonly known as “Section 8.”  The HCVP is the federal…

WILMINGTON, Del. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment on February 13, 2020, charging a Baltimore, Maryland woman with one count of theft from a Wilmington company receiving federal funds. According to the indictment, April Pritchett, 37, engaged in a scheme to defraud her former employer, referred to as Company A in the indictment, a property management and development company based in Wilmington, Delaware.  Company A receives…