South Bend, Indiana —The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court: Ian T. Kideys, 49, of La Jolla, California, was sentenced by District Judge Robert L. Miller Jr. to 60 months of imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release and $1.4 million in restitution after pleading guilty to the felony offense of wire fraud.  Kideys was also sentenced in a separate matter to 60 months of imprisonment after…

WILLIAMSPORT — A federal grand jury has indicted a State College man on charges he lied about his income to live in subsidized housing and to obtain loans for several luxury vehicles. Ivan Viktorovich Kronin, 31, of Cypress Way, is accused in the indictment Thursday in U.S. Middle District Court of stating on vehicle loan applications that his annual income from KPS Construction was between $60,000 and $78,000. But in documents submitted to the…

An official who handled rent money from residents of Philadelphia Housing Authority homes allegedly used her position to steal about $8,000 over two years, the U.S. Attorney's office said. Sondra Wong Nelson, 36, of Philadelphia, allegedly stole the rent money between June 2010 and January 2012 in her capacity as a supervisory asset manager for PHA. The alleged scam was pretty simple, the U.S. Attorney said. When a tenant would bring in their…

Fourteen months after Point Township was cleared of wrongdoing in administering a $381,000 federal grant, the state Department of Community and Economic Development may foist the repayment demand it received from the federal government onto the Northumberland County municipality. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which distributes grants that aid in the creation of low-income housing, wrote in a Sept. 10 letter to DCED that…

PHILADELPHIA - Sondra Wong Nelson, 36, of Philadelphia was charged by Indictment, unsealed October 3, 2013, with one count of theft from a federally funded organization and two counts of falsely altering a postal money order, announced U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger. According to the indictment, between January 2012 and June 2010, during her tenure as a Supervisory Asset Manager at the Philadelphia Housing Authority (APHA@), Nelson embezzled…

TRENTON, N.J. B A Hudson County, N.J. man today admitted his role in paying bribes to a Bayonne public official for the public official’s assistance in securing projects funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Joseph Arrigo, 45, of Bayonne, N.J., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one count of…

It seems as if there is always some bank, corporation or millionaire out there trying to take advantage of those less fortunate. In fact, this was a huge factor in the housing bubble that contributed to the economic recession that began in 2008. Unfortunately, certain predatory lending practices, such as mortgage fraud, have continuously been on the rise over the past few years. Many Arizonians wonder whether they’re also affected by this rise…

Former NFL player Irving Fryar and his mother were indicted by a New Jersey grand jury Wednesday on charges they conspired to steal more than $690,000 through a mortgage scam. In announcing the indictment, prosecutors said Fryar and his mother, Allene McGhee, engaged in a "sophisticated mortgage fraud scam" by allegedly having McGhee submit false information to obtain five loans on her home within a six-day period. The two were indicted on…

For Immediate Release September 30, 2013 Contact: HUD OIG Communications [email protected] Washington, DC – Today, Inspector General David A. Montoya announced the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a report entitled, “Moving to Work Demonstration Program.”  This audit was undertaken to focus HUD management’s attention on problem areas reported on over the years…

CHICAGO―Ten defendants, including five licensed loan originators, were indicted for allegedly participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain approximately 52 residential mortgage loans totaling at least $14.5 million from various lenders. The indictment alleges that the mortgages were obtained to finance the purchase of various properties, primarily on the west and south sides of Chicago, by straw buyers who were fraudulently qualified for…

Eleven residents of Chicago and its suburbs have been indicted in a $14.5 million mortgage fraud scheme that involved homes on the city’s south and west sides. The Justice Department said the alleged wrongdoing involved 10 properties, 52 home loans and straw buyers who were fraudulently qualified for the mortgages between August 2004 and October 2012. As a result of the alleged fraud, authorities said lenders lost $8 million. Among the…

Updated: Friday, September 13 2013, 07:36 PM EDT COLUMBUS (Tom Sussi) -- We're updating a scandal at the Columbus Urban League ABC 6 Investigators first broke two years ago.   Former Urban League executive Ovell Harrison agreed to a plea deal today in federal court. Harrison pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, and one count of aggravated theft. The 55-year-old is free on bond, and will be sentenced within the next two months.…

COLUMBUS, OHIO– Ovell Harrison, 55, of Columbus, Ohio pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in connection with his position as Director of Education Services at the Columbus Urban League between 2004 and 2010. Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of the Inspector…

ST. LOUIS • An old Coca-Cola plant redone as lofts held promise as a profitable way to buoy a south St. Louis neighborhood. Instead, the struggling site has embroiled the developers in a dispute over why the project defaulted on a federally insured loan. Prominent in the controversy are a critical audit by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a longtime St. Louis developer, a buried oil tank and a disgraced former HUD official. In…

LOWELL -- The City Council has called a special meeting to discuss the recently released federal audit of the Lowell Housing Authority, the findings of which could result in the LHA having to repay the federal government more than $11 million. The meeting will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. The audit, completed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General's Office, found the LHA did not perform cost estimates and…

Sept. 13, 2013 -- Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that five individuals were charged today in a scheme to steal Yonkers Municipal Housing Authority rent payments. Shamesha Holloway (DOB 01/16/88) of 615 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers, New York, Shakeia Davis (DOB 11/16/84) of 26 Rollins Avenue, Yonkers, New York, Dominique Hodges (DOB 12/23/88) of 114 Buena Vista Avenue, Yonkers, New York, Khrystina Harris (DOB 06/21/…

Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations “Reducing Waste, Fraud and Abuse in Housing Programs: Inspector General Perspectives”  

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada-based homebuilder was sentenced Tuesday to 51 months in federal prison for siphoning money allocated for Navajo Nation housing projects in Arizona and New Mexico for personal gambling, jewelry and thoroughbred racehorse training expenses. William Aubrey, 71, of Mesquite, protested during his sentencing in Las Vegas that over the years he built thousands of affordable houses for tribe members. "I apologize for what I…

A Newport Coast man was resentenced today to five years behind bars and ordered to pay about $535,000 in restitution for a scheme to fraudulently obtain mortgage loans that went into default, causing more than $2.7 million in losses to the federal government and commercial lenders. Lorenzo Espinoza, 46, pleaded guilty in 2006 in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

CANTON -The classically styled, sleek, energy-efficient complex known as the Metropolitan Centre was supposed to be a crown jewel for the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority. Instead, it turned out to be a four-story chunk of cubic zirconia the agency wants to sell — as soon as possible. The 54,000-square-foot Centre at 601 Cleveland Ave. NW opened in 2007. Today, it’s home to a nightclub, a Knights of Columbus, a physician’s office, a U.S.…