(Source: cleveland19.com) CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - A Cuyahoga County Grand Jury has indicted Cleveland's alleged Facebook Scammer Zienup Sbeih. Monday morning, Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority Police presented their case seeking an indictment on at least five counts for Housing and Food Stamp Fraud. The indictment came down with seven counts total, including five counts of Tampering with Evidence, one count of Grand Theft and one…

The owner of a former real estate escrow firm was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 24 months in prison for bank fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. LORI LYNN ANDREW, 49, of Cashmere, Washington, the owner of Hartman Escrow, Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud.  ANDREW stole more than $2.1 million through a variety of techniques, including making false entries in escrow closing documents,…

BOSTON – A Methuen real estate broker was sentenced today in connection with a sweeping conspiracy to defraud banks and mortgage companies by engaging in sham “short” sales of residential properties in Merrimack Valley. Greisy Jimenez, 50, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to three years in prison, four years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $12,500. The court will determine issues of restitution…

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,…

PHILADELPHIA – U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain announced that George Barnard, of Newtown Square, was sentenced today to five years in federal prison for defrauding lenders of almost $13 million. Barnard, 47, pleaded guilty to multiple fraud counts in April. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $12,774,941.89 and to forfeit $4,262,279.38 in proceeds he obtained through his commission of the offense. From 2005 to March 2013,…

BOSTON – 25 individuals were charged today in federal court in Boston as a result of a federal sweep targeting offenders of document and benefit fraud. Many of the defendants have prior criminal histories, including a convicted murderer who escaped from prison in Puerto Rico in 1994 while serving a 40-year sentence. 21 of the alleged defendants are unlawfully present in the United States. Dubbed “Double Trouble,” the investigation was conducted…

Lucresha Frank, 41, of Pontiac, a former manager of the Colony Arms apartments in Detroit, pleaded guilty to bribery, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced today. Schneider was joined in the announcement by Brad Geary, Special Agent in Charge, Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General and Timothy R. Slater, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2013, Frank…

(Source: www.crainsdetroit.com) A former manager of an apartment building in Detroit's English Village neighborhood has pleaded guilty to accepting cash bribes from hopeful tenants who were on a waiting list for low-cost housing units. Lucresha Frank, 41, admitted to soliciting and accepting the bribes as manager of Colony Arms, at 9303 E. Jefferson Ave., which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a…

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…

BOSTON – A Roxbury man identified as John Doe was arrested today and arraigned in federal court in Boston. According to the indictment unsealed today, Doe repeatedly used a Social Security number that was not his, including to obtain a U.S. passport, which he then used to enter the U.S., and in support of a claim for Massachusetts unemployment insurance benefits. The indictment also charges that Doe obtained public housing benefits worth over $…

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…

(Source: orangecountyda.org) Case # 17CF2429 Date: July 17, 2018 MAN SENTENCED TO EIGHT YEARS IN PRISON FOR UNLAWFUL LOAN MODIFICATION AND MONEY LAUNDERING AFTER DEFRAUDING NEARLY $2.3 MILLION FROM 387 HOMEOWNERS SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was convicted and sentenced on Friday to eight years in state prison for operating an unlawful loan modification and money laundering scam that defrauded nearly $2.3 million from 387 homeowners.  …

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A mother and her daughter face federal charges as part of scams to get ill-gotten money from the U.S. Department of Education through filing fraudulent student aid paperwork. Elizabeth Westmoreland, 69, and Basheera Perry, 45, face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and theft of government property. Perry, who lives in Euclid, is charged with defrauding the…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico– Miguel G. Ortiz-Vélez, a.k.a. “Papín”, mayor of the municipality of Sabana Grande has been indicted and arrested for his participation in a conspiracy to steal federal funds involving fraudulently obtained contracts from the PR Department of Education (PR DOE), announced U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez of the District of Puerto Rico. In a separate unrelated indictment, Victor Cruz-Quintero, former Director of…

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…

Benjamin G. Greenberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Rafiq Ahmad, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Nadine Gurley, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), Juan J. Perez, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), and Mary T. Cagle, Inspector General, Miami Dade County…

BOSTON – A real estate attorney was sentenced today in connection with a sweeping conspiracy to defraud banks and mortgage companies by engaging in sham “short” sales of residential properties in Merrimack Valley. Jasmin Polanco, 37, of Methuen, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to 15 months in prison, three year of supervised release and ordered to pay $1,224,489 in restitution. In March 2018, Polanco…

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…

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that STEVEN F. HARVIN, 53, of New Haven, was arrested today on a criminal complaint charging him with wire fraud and theft from programs receiving federal funds. After his arrest, HARVIN appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam in New Haven and was released on a $50,000 bond. According to the complaint, the Housing Opportunities for Persons with…

BOSTON – The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today a $57,000 settlement with two landlords and a property manager of three Dorchester apartments to resolve allegations they submitted false claims to the federal government after receiving impermissible excess rent payments from two low income tenants while participating in a federal housing subsidy program. The Department of Housing and Urban Development provides federal funding through the…