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.

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: www.kstp.com) A Minneapolis woman faces charges after authorities say she stole funds from a nonprofit she worked at while she was on probation for defrauding another nonprofit, according to a release from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.  The release said Cynthia Waight faces one count of identity theft and one count of theft by swindle.  The county attorney's office said Waight was investigated by a special agent…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company Inc. (SPM), a national mortgage lender headquartered in Folsom, has agreed to pay the United States $3,670,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by falsely certifying compliance with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance requirements in connection with certain loans. During the time period…

A contractor from North Royalton was indicted for paying cash bribes to a City of Cleveland building official. Martin Fano, 69, was indicted on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud. According to the indictment: Fano owned and operated ABC Construction LLC, a business that provided demolition and construction services in the Cleveland area. The company did demolition work for the City of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank…

(Source: Cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio — A North Royalton contractor is charged with paying bribes to a former Cleveland official, as part of an expanding federal probe into corruption within the city’s demolition operations. A federal grand jury indicted ABC Construction owner Martin Fano Wednesday on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement that the 69 year old paid cash bribes to…

(Source: NEWS5CLEVELAND.COM) NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — A North Royalton contractor was indicted for allegedly paying cash bribes to a Cleveland building official, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. Martin Fano, 69, was indicted on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, according to the release. Fano, who owned and operated ABC Construction LLC, did demolition work for the City of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga…

(Source: crainscleveland)  A North Royalton contractor was indicted Wednesday, Feb. 6, by a federal grand jury for paying cash bribes to a Cleveland building official. Martin Fano, who owned and operated ABC Construction LLC, was indicted on seven counts of honest services mail and wire fraud. According to the indictment, ABC Construction, which did demolition work for the city of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Land Bank and others, paid bribes…

Greenbelt, Maryland – On December 3, 2018, U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Michelle Sylethia Jordan, a/k/a Michelle Harris and Michelle Welsh, age 49; and her husband, Michael Paul Anthony Welsh, a/k/a Michael A. Welsh and Michael Paul S. Welsh, age 45, both of Laurel, Maryland, to 57 months and 46 months in federal prison, respectively, each followed by three years of supervise release, on conspiracy and wire fraud charges in…

(SOURCE: clickondetroit.com) DETROIT - A former manager of the Colony Arms apartments in Detroit, Nekicha Redmond, 39, of Oxford, Mississippi, pleaded guilty on Monday to bribery, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced.  Schneider was joined in the announcement by Brad Geary, special agent in charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General, and Timothy R. Slater, special agent in…

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former Cuyahoga Land Bank employee was indicted in federal court on charges that accuse him of helping a demolition company get contracts in exchange for performing improvements to his Cleveland Heights home. Kenneth Tyson, 48, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services fraud, three counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of bribery, the U.S. Attorney’s…

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced a federal indictment charging ROBERT ANTHONY COLEMAN, 45, and YOLANDA YVETTE COLEMAN aka YOLANDA YVETTE PITTMAN, 50, with multiple counts related to the theft of more than $248,000 of government funds. ROBERT COLEMAN is also charged with two counts of false statements and an additional count of Social Security fraud. They will make their initial appearances in U.S. District Court at a…

A former executive director of a Cleveland community development corporation was arrested this morning for embezzling more than $172,000 from the Collinwood and Nottingham Villages Development Corporation. Tamiko Parker, 46, of Cleveland, is scheduled to appear on Thursday at 2 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. She has been indicted on one count of theft of federal funds. Parker served as executive director of Collinwood and Nottingham…

(Source: cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio — The former executive director of the Collinwood & Nottingham Villages Development Corporation was arrested by federal authorities Thursday on accusations that she stole money from the CDC. Tamiko Parker, 46, of Cleveland is charged with theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. The CDC, a nonprofit on the city’s East Side that develops and leases property, lost more than $172,000. She…

(Source: STL NEWS) Montgomery, Ala. – On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Christopher B. Pitts, 48 years old and a Georgia resident who was previously a practicing attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, received a 37-month sentence for devising a scheme to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. United States District Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced Pitts after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Department of Housing and Urban…

(Source: insidernj.com) TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal today announced that the Attorney General’s Office and its state and federal partners have charged four new defendants with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy, bringing the total number of defendants charged by the office in these cases to 125 since March 2014. “Any fraud against public assistance programs is deplorable, but…

BOSTON – A Wakefield man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston in connection with a decade-long mortgage fraud scheme involving at least two dozen fraudulent loan transactions and $4.3 million in losses to lenders. Joseph Bates III, 38, of Wakefield, pleaded guilty before U.S. Senior District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to an Information charging him with one count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud affecting a financial…

Universal American Mortgage Company LLC (UAMC) has agreed to pay the United States $13.2 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by falsely certifying that it complied with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance requirements in connection with certain loans, the Department of Justice announced today.  UAMC is a mortgage lender headquartered in Miami, Florida. “Mortgage lenders may not ignore…

(Source: Dallasnews.com)  An obscure city housing agency has been awarding thousands of dollars of contracts — and in one case a bonus — to members of its board, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. The Dallas City Council may take steps to rein in such inside deals at its meeting Wednesday. The agency — the Dallas Housing Finance Corporation — is one of the city’s tools to address the lack of affordable housing for people with…

BOSTON – Three Massachusetts men were charged today in federal court in Boston in connection with a 10-year mortgage fraud scheme involving at least two dozen fraudulent loan transactions and $4.3 million in losses to lenders. George Kritopoulos, 46, of Salem, a real estate developer, was arrested today and charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, six counts of bank fraud, one count of aiding the preparation of a false…