BOSTON – A mortgage loan officer was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with a sweeping conspiracy to defraud banks and mortgage companies by engaging in sham “short” sales of residential properties in Merrimack Valley. Vanessa Ricci, 41, of Methuen, a mortgage loan Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – A Jackson, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for his role in a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme that used phony documents and straw buyers to acquire more than $6 million in loans, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. Joseph DiValli previously pleaded Read More

Joseph Fulmore, Jr., 45, of Clarksville, Tenn., was sentenced today to serve three years on federal probation and to pay $17,210.70 in restitution for making false statements in order to obtain public housing benefits, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran of the Middle District of Tennessee.  Read More

United States Attorney John H. Durham and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen today announced that COMMUNITY RENEWAL TEAM and its president, LENA RODRIGUEZ, have entered into a civil settlement agreement with the United States and the State of Connecticut and have paid $362,000 to resolve Read More

(Source:Times of Northwest Indiana) HAMMOND — A former official of the Hammond Housing Authority has pleaded guilty to embezzling $633,628 in federal housing assistance money. U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II announced Friday morning he charged Michelle Seljan, 47, of Hammond, last month with Read More

(Source: Niagara Gazette) BUFFALO -- In a courtroom packed with dozens of Niagara Falls community leaders and others, Stephanie Cowart told a federal judge she never expected that she would face the prospect of prison. "I lived my life, never expecting to appear in court under these circumstances Read More

(Source:News 12 New Jersey) TRENTON, N.J. -  Three more New Jersey residents have been charged with filing fraudulent applications for Superstorm Sandy relief. The new cases were announced Friday by the state Attorney General's Office. Officials say that Fair Lawn resident Diane DiCosmo Read More

COLUMBUS – Wendy Harper, 44, of Columbus, Ohio was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 24 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amounts of $588,121.46 to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for embezzling HUD program funds Read More

STATESVILLE, N.C. B Roger Dean Bailey, Jr., 41, or Hickory, N.C. was sentenced to 30 months in prison today for his role in a mortgage and consumer fraud conspiracy involving manufactured and modular homes, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. Read More

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Shola Risikat Balogun, age 48, of Upper Marlboro, today to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that she organized and Read More

WASHINGTON –   Edward Dacy, 76, of West Melbourne, Fla., and A. Conrad Austin, 49, of Bowie, Md., have been indicted on conspiracy, bank fraud, and other federal charges stemming from a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme in which they are accused of assisting their co- Read More

A former city of Dallas employee who admitted to hindering a federal investigation and trading housing for sex, among other things, will spend 15 months behind bars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office this morning. Lawrence Hart has also been ordered to pay back $8,619. From 2012 until last Read More

TRENTON — Four more New Jersey residents were accused today of lying on applications for federal relief funds in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to obtain more than $161,000, state authorities said, bringing the total number of those charged since March to a dozen. Mary Conlin, 51, of West Read More

LAFAYETTE — A former employee of the Opelousas Housing Authority was sentenced to two years of probation Friday in a federal investigation of bid-rigging that also snagged the former director and a local contractor. Garnette L. Thomas, 76, the Housing Authority’s former grant and capital funds Read More

The White Mountain Apache Housing Authority misspent millions of federal dollars on entertainment, gift certificates and other improper items, and is so badly managed it should be considered for receivership, according to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development audit released this week Read More

U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Mexico Press Release ALBUQUERQUE—Two men from Gallup, N.M., pleaded guilty today to federal charges arising out of a scheme to defraud the United States and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of more than $100,000. The guilty pleas Read More

Jonathan Pinson, once chairman of the board of S.C. State University and a high-flying businessman known for multi-million-dollar development projects, was given a new label Thursday by a federal jury: racketeer. The jury found the Greenville businessman guilty on 29 of 45 felony counts and Read More

U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Louisiana Press Release United States Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr. announced that STACEY JACKSON, age 47, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon to conspiracy to steal federal Read More

  Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations Topic: “Evaluating Public Housing in the U.S.: Reigning in Waste, Fraud, Abuse and Mismanagement at Public Housing Authorities."  

Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Investigation of HUD Lobbying Activities February 26, 2014 - 10:00 a.m., Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2128