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…

(Source: Jerseyshoreonline.com) OCEAN COUNTY – A Seaside Heights man will spend a decade in prison after he admitted to stealing from a Superstorm Sandy fraud grant. 45-year-old Robert Brower was sentenced Friday to stealing from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant in the amount of $225,000, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Brower had pleaded guilty in…

ATLANTA - Janice Cooks has been sentenced for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds intended for housing for disabled women and their children. “The defendant obtained nearly a million dollars from HUD in grant funds designated for housing for disabled women and children,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.  “Cooks intentionally mismanaged the money, spent it on personal…

The Administration of Disaster Recovery Funds in the Wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, House Financial Services Committee, subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Jeremy Kirkland, Counsel to the Inspector General was a witness.  Click here to watch.

(Source: www.wcpo.com CINCINNATI — Federal agents arrested a registered sex offender who's accused of forging court documents and judges' signatures in an effort to obtain housing vouchers. Gary Wipperman, 57, is required to register his residence to authorities every 90 days after being convicted of gross sexual imposition and felonious sexual penetration involving a 9-year-old victim in Greene County in 1993. U. S. Department of Housing and…

TRENTON, N.J. – A Passaic County, New Jersey, man and a Bergen County, New Jersey, man have been arraigned for their respective roles in a reverse mortgage scheme that took advantage of several elderly homeowners, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced today. Rafael Peralta, 46, of Clifton, New Jersey, and Philip Puccio Jr., 40, of Mahwah, New Jersey, were indicted Feb. 8, 2019, by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy to commit bank…

(Source: WashingtonPost.com) A former contract specialist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has pleaded guilty in a federal bribery scheme that involved giving private information on contracts to a Maryland business in exchange for more than $38,000 in money, travel and hotels and tickets to Washington Redskins and Washington Wizards games. Authorities said Kevin Jones, 48, of Laurel, Md., was a contract oversight…

WASHINGTON – Kevin Jones, 48, a former contract oversight specialist with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), pled guilty today to a federal bribery charge stemming from a scheme in which he provided non-public information about pending HUD contracts to a business owner in exchange for tickets to sporting events, travel, and cash. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director…