Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JACQUELINE GRAHAM was convicted at trial on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, of participating in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud in connection with a fraudulent debt-elimination scheme to defraud homeowners and banks.  GRAHAM was found guilty of the one count she faced after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge…

Pacific Medical Buildings LLC (PMB), PMB Lakeway LLC, RD Development Partners LLC, Lakeway Management LLC, J&L Rush Family Partnership LP, Jeff Rush, and Brad Daniel have agreed to pay the United States $1.1 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by improperly helping to obtain a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and receiving impermissible distributions of project funds for the…

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Timothy J. Oravec, age 60, formerly an employee at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Albany, New York, was sentenced yesterday afternoon to serve four months imprisonment and three years of supervised release by Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. for committing wire fraud as part of a scheme to defraud the United States and HUD employees by falsely claiming that…

BOSTON – A Roxbury man identified as John Doe was convicted yesterday by a federal jury in Boston of using another person’s identity for over 40 years. John Doe, whose true identity is unknown, was convicted of aggravated identity theft; using a passport obtained through false statements; stealing public funds; and misuse of a Social Security number. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock scheduled sentencing for Sept. 18, 2019. At some…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sherwana Lynn Marcus, also known as Sherwana Granderson and Sherwana Santana, 47, was arrested today on a 36-count federal indictment charging her with wire fraud for a scheme that defrauded homeless individuals and a housing assistance nonprofit that was receiving federal funding, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. According to court documents, between May 2014 and March 2015, Marcus used her employment at a…

(Source: themonitor.com) The Weslaco Housing Authority may be on the hook to repay over $100,000 to the federal government after an audit found it had improperly retained legal services. The Office of the Inspector General conducted the audit on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after the WHA self reported the error in procuring its legal services between 2014 and 2017. In a statement released Thursday, the OIG…

(Source: stltoday.com) ST. LOUIS • The former head of the Wellston Housing Authority pleaded guilty Monday to a federal theft charge and admitted stealing tenants' rent money. Marchell Benton, 63, deposited tenant rent money in her personal bank or used it to pay the rent of relatives who were tenants, her plea agreement says. Benton then falsified records to show that the tenants whose rent money she'd misused had paid their rent, or…

NEWARK, N.J. – A Hoboken, New Jersey, man today admitted his role in a conspiracy to promote a voter bribery scheme during a municipal election, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. Dio Braxton, 43, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark federal court to an indictment charging him with conspiring with Frank Raia and others to use the mail to promote a voter bribery scheme during the 2013 municipal election in…

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett, today announced that three women who controlled the process by which prospective buyers applied for high demand cooperative apartments at the Luna Park Housing Corporation, a Mitchell-Lama complex in Coney Island, have been named in a 78-count indictment in which they are charged with conspiracy, grand larceny, forgery…

DAYTON – Cynthia A. Faulkner, 34, of Dayton, Ohio, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining food card benefits and submitting false income tax documents. Faulkner pleaded guilty in January to three counts of making a false document, two counts of aiding in the filing of a false income tax return and one count of misprision of a felony. Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio,…

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced the guilty pleas of ROBERT ANTHONY COLEMAN, 45, and YOLANDA YVETTE COLEMAN aka YOLANDA YVETTE PITTMAN, 50, for conspiring to defraud multiple government social services programs over the course of several years. The defendants entered their guilty pleas today before Senior Judge David S. Doty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the defendants’ guilty pleas and…

NEWARK, N.J. – A Hoboken, New Jersey, man today admitted promoting a voter bribery scheme in two city elections, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. Matthew Calicchio, 28, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini in Newark federal court to an information charging him with using the mails to promote voter bribery from 2013 to 2015 in municipal elections in Hoboken. According to documents filed in this case and…

BOSTON – The president and founder of a Falmouth mortgage company was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with defrauding the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) out of approximately $2.5 million. Robert Pena, 69, the president and founder of the now-defunct mortgage company, Mortgage Security, Inc. (MSI), was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to 32 months in prison, two years…

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Gregory J. Darr, 65, of Coshocton, formerly the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Coshocton Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for embezzling more than $431,000 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Brad Geary, Special Agent in Charge, U.S.…

Defendant stole more than $164,000 in housing, health care, and SNAP benefits BOSTON – A Dominican national pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to false representation of a Social Security number and theft of public money.      Noemi Mejia, 51, pleaded guilty to false representation of a Social Security number and theft of public money. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for July…

WASHINGTON – LaFonda Lewis, 57, a former supervisory contract oversight specialist with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison for providing non-public information about pending HUD contracts to a business owner in exchange for money, tickets to sporting events, and other things of value.             The announcement was…

A former Stuart Housing Authority employee pled guilty today to stealing government funds from the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program. Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Nadine Gurley, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), made the announcement. Cynthia Cabrera, 49, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, pled guilty today to one…

(Source: Geneseesun.com) ROCHESTER – Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Adam C. McFadden pleaded guilty to wire fraud and filing a false tax return before U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard A. Resnick, who is handling the case, stated that McFadden was a member of the Rochester City Council, while co-…

A federal jury in Central Islip returned a guilty verdict today against Cornell Bozier, the former Chairman of the Board of Commissioners at the Village of Hempstead Housing Authority (VHHA) on four counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and federal program bribery.  The verdict followed a two-week trial before United States District Judge Joan M. Azrack.  When sentenced, Bozier faces…

(Source: jerseyshoreonline.com) MANAHAWKIN – An investigation arrested and charged two Manahawkin contractors for failing to perform contracted work on homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy, announced Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer.   The couple, 44-year old Adam Nevius and 50-year old Kimberly Atkinson, was arrested and charged with Failure to Make Required Disposition. Atkinson was also charged with one count of Theft by Deception, for her…