Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOHN TRASACCO, 50, of West Haven, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to 96 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy and fraud offenses related to a scheme to steal COVID-19 relief funds from the City of West Haven. According to the evidence presented during a trial in…

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOHN BERNARDO, 66, of West Haven, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to 13 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for participating in a scheme to steal COVID-19 relief funds from the City of West Haven. According to court documents and statements made in court, Bernardo was employed…

      WASHINGTON DC—Apex Waukegan LLC (Apex), a multifamily housing landlord receiving rental assistance subsidies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Integra Affordable Management LLC (Integra), Apex’s affiliated management agent, were ordered to pay $1,258,671 in civil money penalties for breaching their Housing Assistance Payment Contract (HAP contract) by knowingly failing to maintain…

The United States has filed a complaint under the National Housing Act of 1934 (NHA) against Bob Dean Jr. and several affiliated corporate entities for misappropriating and misusing the assets and income of four nursing homes in Louisiana before and after Hurricane Ida’s landfall in August 2021. The four nursing homes, all of which were owned and operated by Dean and his companies, and had loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (…

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Christina D. Scaringi, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced that MICHAEL DiMASSA, 31, of West Haven, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in…

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Christina D. Scaringi, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced that MICHAEL DiMASSA, 31, of West Haven, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in…

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that DONNA CARNEY, 67, of Canton, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Circuit Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam in Bridgeport to one count of theft of government property. According to court documents and statements made in court,  in approximately 1995, Carney began receiving Section 8 tenant-based rental assistance under the housing choice voucher program of…

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that LAUREN DiMASSA, formerly known as LAUREN KNOX, 38, of West Haven, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to a conspiracy charge stemming from her role in a scheme to steal COVID relief funds from the City of West Haven. According to court documents and statements made in court, DiMassa conspired with her husband,…

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOHN BERNARDO, 66, of West Haven, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to a conspiracy charge stemming from his role in a scheme to steal COVID relief funds from the City of West Haven. According to court documents and statements made in court, Bernardo was employed by the City of West Haven as a Housing…

Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ALICIA GARDNER, 51, of Griswold, waived her right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to embezzling money from federally subsidized housing complexes that she had managed. According to court documents and statements made in court, Gardner was employed by Garden Homes Management Corporation…

WASHINGTON – Guild Mortgage Company has agreed to pay the United States $24.9 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the common law by knowingly breaching material program requirements when it originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Justice announced today.  Guild Mortgage Company is…