Tracy Denise Jones, a former senior vice president at the Atlanta Housing Authority, was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay restitution for a scheme to fraudulently collect Section 8 housing assistance payments for her own rental property and family members, 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 pleaded guilty in February to federal charges of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, wire fraud and credit application fraud. Her prison term will be followed by nine months of home detention and 15 months of supervised release, and she was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $65,598.80 and a fine of $63,546.
“Jones violated the trust of the community, the taxpayers, and the needy families she was supposed to assist, using her senior position at one of the largest housing authorities to steal limited public funds,” said US Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “Her theft of that money meant other members of the community went without much-needed relief. Our office will continue to vigorously act to hold people like Jones, who violate the public trust and pilfer from the treasury, accountable.”
0 Comments