EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – Shomanicka Holly, 36, of East Saint Louis, Illinois, pled guilty today to a two-count felony information charging her with health care fraud and making materially false statements on a public housing form. As part of her plea, Holly admitted to defrauding a government Read More

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), completed an audit to determine whether FHA-insured borrowers properly received the COVID-19-related forbearance.  The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), signed into law Read More

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), completed a corrective action verification (CAV) of recommendations from four prior home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) audit reports.  The CAV was initiated because protecting the Federal Read More

We contracted with the independent public accounting firm of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA) to audit the financial statements of FHA as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, and to provide reports on FHA’s 1) internal control over financial reporting; and 2) compliance with Read More

The Justice Department announced today that Joseph Centanni, a landlord who has owned hundreds of rental units in and around Elizabeth, New Jersey, has agreed to pay $4.5 million in monetary damages and a civil penalty to resolve a Fair Housing Act (FHA) lawsuit concerning his sexual harassment of Read More

CHICAGO — An ongoing federal investigation into the failure of Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Chicago has resulted in criminal charges against three former members of the bank’s Board of Directors who allegedly conspired to obstruct regulators and falsify bank records. Washington Federal Read More

We contracted with the independent public accounting firm of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA) to audit the financial statements of HUD as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2021 and 2020,1 and to provide reports on HUD’s 1) internal control over financial reporting; and 2) compliance with Read More

We conducted this evaluation due to the growing homeless crisis and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) establishing a goal of ending homelessness.  Our objective was to evaluate the challenges that participating public housing agencies (PHA) face in meeting the goals 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."