Tracy Denise Jones, a senior vice president at the Atlanta Housing Authority, has been charged with engaging in a scheme to fraudulently collect Section 8 housing assistance payments for her own rental property and family members.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia stated that Jones is also charged with making fraudulent applications to collect pandemic relief funds and committing mortgage fraud when refinancing her rental property.
According to the charges against her, Jones has served as senior vice president over the Housing Choice Voucher Program at the Atlanta Housing Authority since April 2017, overseeing one of the largest Section 8 programs in the country.
Jones is accused of allegedly defrauding the program by using a series of falsified forms to have her family members admitted to the Section 8 program and then to receive Section 8 payments for them to live in her own rental house. To conceal her identity, Jones allegedly used a fake name and a shell business entity to execute housing authority documents. As a result, she improperly obtained more than $36,000 of Section 8 funds. Jones then allegedly obstructed subsequent investigations by submitting a false affidavit and convincing friends to lie and present false documents on her behalf.
Furthermore, Jones allegedly used her shell business and another business to collect more than $27,000 from the US Small Business Administration’s Covid-19 pandemic relief programs, falsely claiming that the businesses were functioning, had multiple employees, and received over $56,000 of gross revenues in 2019. When the SBA denied one of Jones’ applications, she allegedly appealed the denial, pleading for the SBA to approve her request, claiming to be an “honest business owner.”
Jones also allegedly committed mortgage fraud when she refinanced her Section 8 rental property, falsely claiming on her application for a $219,780 loan that the property was her primary residence, that the residence was not a rental property, and that she did not own any other property.
Jones was arraigned on a criminal information containing federal charges of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, wire fraud, and credit application fraud.
“A long-time senior executive of one of the largest housing authorities in the nation, Jones was entrusted to deliver vast sums of government assistance to our community’s neediest members,” said US Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “But Jones allegedly exploited a variety of assistance programs and chose to line her own pockets using an alternate identity, multiple business entities, a false affidavit, and a cadre of associates willing to lie on her behalf.”
