The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit against Joseph Earl Lucas of Amesville, Ohio, for sexually harassing female tenants and housing applicants in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Lucas has owned and managed more than 70 residential rental properties in and around Athens County, Ohio. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, alleges that since at least 2004, Lucas requested sex acts from female…

Defendant purchased alpaca farm using fraudulently obtained pandemic relief funds BOSTON – A former North Shore resident was sentenced today in connection with filing fraudulent applications for more than $660,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan funds and using those funds for personal expenses, including the purchase of an alpaca farm in Vermont. Dana L. McIntyre, 59, of Grafton, Vt. and previously of Beverly and Essex, Mass., was…

McALLEN, Texas - A 51-year-old Rio Grande City resident and employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been charged with bribery of public officials and witnesses, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.  Roberto Rodriguez, 51, turned himself in to authorities today. He is expected to make his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker at 9 a.m. Also taken into custody and appearing today are Jose…

CINCINNATI – A Cincinnati tenant is charged with federal crimes related to making false statements accusing her landlord of violating the Fair Housing Act. Dermisha Pickett, 33, allegedly fabricated messages from her landlord stating the landlord did not want Black tenants. Pickett appeared in federal court in Cincinnati yesterday after self-surrendering. Her case was unsealed today. “False reports to law enforcement, as alleged in this case,…

ATLANTA - Maurice Lawson has been sentenced to federal prison for obtaining nearly a half a million dollars by submitting multiple fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) applications. “Congress enacted the Paycheck Protection Program to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans suffering the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawson took advantage of a federal…

BOSTON – An individual pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston in connection with fraudulently using the identity of a U.S. citizen. Alexander Villalona Diaz, 37, previously of Lawrence, pleaded guilty to one count of false representation of a Social Security number and one count of aggravated identity theft. U.S. Senior District Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Dec. 4, 2023. In December 2020, Villalona Diaz was indicted by a…

MINNEAPOLIS – An Albert Lea woman has been sentenced to a year and one day in prison, three years of supervised release, and is required to pay $213,217 in restitution for stealing public housing rent payments, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger. According to court documents, between January 2010 and July 18, 2018, Marcie Marie Thumann, 45, worked as a bookkeeper for the Albert Lea Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), a government…

Natural disasters affect millions of Americans each year. Homeowners who experience a temporary or permanent loss of income due to a natural disaster or an increase in expenses post-disaster may be financially vulnerable, making it difficult for them to make mortgage payments.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The former director of a local Islamic center was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to four months in prison then four months in a halfway house followed by 12 months of home confinement for embezzling funds from the mosque, defrauding public housing, and filing for fraudulent COVID assistance funds. Ahmed A. Sh. Ahmed, 44, of Gahanna, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to committing wire fraud, submitting a false statement…

August 10, 2023, letter from Inspector General Oliver Davis in follow up to her June 2023 testimony about HUD’s progress in resolving HUD OIG recommendations.

CHICAGO — Three former board members of the failed Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Chicago have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to falsify bank records to deceive the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. WILLIAM M. MAHON, 56, of Chicago, and GEORGE F. KOZDEMBA, 73, of Fort Myers, Fla., pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge during a hearing Monday before U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall.  Mahon’s guilty…

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…

DAYTON, Ohio – A Tipp City man was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 18 months in prison for defrauding a local non-profit organization. He was also ordered to pay $94,942 in restitution. Antoine Draines, 43, defrauded Miami Valley Community Action Partnership (MVCAP) of rental assistance funds. MVCAP received federal funding as part of the CARES Act. According to court documents, Draines controlled and operated Freedom for Living…

Be on the lookout for fraudsters who may try to take advantage of quick timeframes and difficult circumstances that individuals and communities face following a disaster.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico –Today, United States District Court Judge Camille Vélez Rivé sentenced Walter Pierluisi Isern, Eduardo Pierluisi Isern, and American Management and Administration Corporation (AMAC). The defendants pleaded guilty in April to one count of Theft of Federal Program Funds in relation to the misappropriation of operational funds provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the…

BENTON, Ill. – A U.S. district judge sentenced the former executive director of the Jefferson County Housing Authority to spend 10 months in federal prison after he converted more than $20,000 in authority funds for personal expenses. In addition to the prison sentence, Thomas J. Upchurch, 53, now of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was ordered to pay $20,150 in restitution back to the housing authority, and he will serve one year of supervised…

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Movement Mortgage, LLC, has agreed to pay the United States $23.75 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act  by failing to comply with material program requirements when it originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), United States Attorney…

Written Testimony of Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance: “HUD Oversight: Testimony of the HUD Inspector General” Hearing Video

WASHINGTON DC— Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued two audit reports examining the loss mitigation options that loan servicers provided to borrowers with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans after their COVID-19 forbearance ended.  The first report broadly examined whether servicers of FHA loans provided proper loss mitigation assistance to homeowners…