A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Nagwa Elsilimy and Ahmed Arafa with fraud by making false statements to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in connection with their obtaining more than $750,000 in disaster relief from New York City’s Build It Back program (BIB) and FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  The…

(source: thetimesherald.com) If true, the allegations against Lorena Loren, the former director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, are disturbing on a number of levels. Federal investigators allege Loren embezzled more than $300,000 from the housing commission between 2008 and 2016, when she retired. Most heartbreaking is that the money that Loren allegedly misdirected into her own pockets and those of some of her family members was meant to…

TRENTON –Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that five additional individuals were charged criminally today with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 91 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the five individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is continuing its…

(Source: patch.com) ELIZABETH, NJ — A Union County man is among five more people to be charged criminally Thursday with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced. James Fomuke, 58, of Elizabeth was among those arrested. He allegedly filed fraudulent applications following Superstorm Sandy for FEMA assistance and a state grant under the Homeowner…

TRENTON –Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that five additional individuals have been charged criminally with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 81 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the five individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is continuing its…

After superstorm Sandy ripped through New Jersey and destroyed tens of thousands of homes, the federal goverment sent $4.2 billion here for housing programs. The state hired a Louisiana company to help set up and run three key housing programs, but it was fired after less than nine months on the job. A federal government watchdog is now saying New Jersey should either prove the company it hired spent federal money appropriately or pay…

(USAO ,NY) Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Mark G. Peters, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), announced today the filing of criminal charges against six defendants for participating in long-running schemes to hide substantial assets and income obtained from significant business and real estate interests in order to attain government benefits designed for…

(Source: dnainfo.com) WILLIAMSBURG — Three Brooklyn couples, including a landlord with properties all over the borough, were arrested Tuesday on charges of defrauding the government of $1.3 million worth of benefits. Shlomo Kubitshuk, 38, and his wife Rachel, 39, Naftali, 40, and Hinda Englander, 41, and Leib, 39, and Devorah Teitelbaum, 36, were accused of lying about their income to the federal government as far back as 2001 in order to…

(OAJ, NJ) TRENTON –Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that nine additional individuals have been charged criminally with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy.  Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 71 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the nine individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is…

(OAG, NJ) TRENTON – Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy announced that five additional individuals were charged criminally today with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 62 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the five individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is…

(Source: OAG, NJ) TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that five additional individuals were charged criminally today with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 50 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the five individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is…

(Source: USAO NY) Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Christina Scaringi, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development - Office of Inspector General (“HUD-OIG”), announced the unsealing of a Complaint against the property manager, CARL IMMICH, for engaging in fraudulent schemes to embezzle funds from Harriet Tubman Terrace Apartments (“Tubman Terrace”), a Section 8…

(Source: nj.gov) TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that eight additional individuals were charged criminally today with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy. Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 45 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the eight individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office…

(Source: nj.com) TRENTON — A Toms River man who received more than $218,000 in Hurricane Sandy relief aid has admitted to filing fraudulent applications for funding from government-run storm recovery programs, authorities said. Gregory Wagner, 63, pleaded guilty in state Superior Court on Monday to third-degree theft by deception, according to the New Jersey Attorney General's Office. Wagner claimed a storm-damaged rental property he owned in…

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 Chester, Pa., allegedly claimed her home in Manahawkin was her primary residence, when in fact it was a vacation home. She was approved for a $145,900 small…

A New Orleans-based contractor who admitted to over-billing a Road Home subsidiary $236,000 was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to two-and-a-half years in prison. Praveen Kailas, a prominent and politically connected contractor, admitted to overbilling the state's Small Rental Property Program, a subset of Road Home designed to aid property owners in rebuilding their units after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Kailas said he approved and…

Chuck Appleby wanted answers back in March as he grappled with how to get his family back into their Seaside Park home that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. He and many other Sandy victims with questions attended a town hall meeting in Manasquan on March 21 to hear what Gov. Chris Christie had to say. Appleby, a Seaside Park Planning Board member, was satisfied with one answer he heard: If you build now, you will be reimbursed, Christie said.…

This bulletin provides an overview of areas in which to prevent fraud and mismanagement. All public housing agency (PHA) commissioners should know steps to take in maintaining integrity at their PHA. HUD-OIG will issue more in-depth coverage for each of these areas in future bulletins.

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