Former Section 8 Manager Sentenced for Taking Cash from Section 8 Applicants, Reports U.S. Attorney

2 August 2006

The former manager of the Section 8 program for the Avon Housing Authority was sentenced today in federal court for taking money from applicants for housing assistance and for falsifying dozens of program records.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Kenneth Donohue, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General, announced today that MARYSOL MORALES, age 41, of Brockton, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris to 5 years and 10 months in prison, to be followed by 2 years of supervised release. Judge Saris also ordered MORALES to pay $180,000 in restitution to Avon Housing Authority and restitution to three of her victims. On April 28, 2006, a trial jury convicted MORALES of four counts of Corrupt Receipt of Payments by an Agent of a Federally Funded Local Government Entity and fifteen counts of Using False Documents in a Matter within the Jurisdiction of a Federal Agency.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Saris commented that MORALES had started herself where many of the victim women had started and that MORALES had received opportunities through the Section 8 Program and her later employment with the AHA that would have made her appear to be a success story. Instead, the Judge noted, MORALES had shown a lack of any understanding or caring about what would happen later on to the victims. Saris found that MORALES' victims were extraordinarily vulnerable and that MORALES had taken advantage of victims who were pregnant, single mothers, non-English speaking and otherwise desperate for housing. She also noted that MORALES had effectively destroyed the Avon Section 8 Program, which, as a result of MORALES' criminal activity, no longer exists in Avon.

MORALES was employed by the Avon Housing Authority ("AHA") as Manager of its Section 8 rent subsidy voucher program. Evidence presented during the week-long trial showed that MORALES took cash, in amounts ranging from $2,600 to $6,500 per person, from applicants who sought Section 8 rent subsidy vouchers from the AHA. At the time, the AHA had no funding for new vouchers and there was a long wait list for financially eligible applicants to the Section 8 rent subsidy voucher program. MORALES told some of the individuals that their payments were necessary to speed the process or were to be used as security deposits and first and last months' rent.

When MORALES distributed the unauthorized AHA Section 8 rent subsidy vouchers, the AHA lacked funding to pay the rent subsidies represented by those vouchers. To cover up her criminal activity, MORALES fabricated bogus vouchers from the Boston Housing Authority, which she put into AHA files in order to create the appearance that there was a source of funding for the unauthorized vouchers that she was distributing. As a result of MORALES' issuance of unauthorized vouchers, the AHA was forced to drain its reserve-spending account, using up funds that were intended for needed repairs to an AHA operated housing complex for the elderly.

By the time MORALES' crimes were discovered, well over 100 people were left stranded, unable to keep up with their rent, and the AHA was nearly drained of its funds.

The case was investigated by Special Agents of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul G. Levenson in Sullivan's Public Corruption Unit.

Source: prnewswire

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