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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Housing Authority of New Orleans ex-worker accused of embezzling $900,000 |
| 2009-09-02 |
| A Florida contractor hired by the Housing Authority of New Orleans to oversee its finances embezzled more than $900,000 during the past three years, according to charges filed Monday by the U.S. attorney's office. Separate public records show that during the same time period the fiscal manager, Elias Castellanos, 43, bought a $1.6 million mansion in Davie, Fla., just north of Miami, and five late-model cars -- including a Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than $200,000, a Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes-Benzes. Federal prosecutors charged Castellanos with one count of embezzlement Monday through a bill of information, indicating that a plea agreement is likely soon to follow. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office didn't provide details of the alleged scam, but charged that Castellanos pocketed $900,927 while serving as HANO's chief financial officer. Federal prosecutors also said they would seek to recover $876,917 if they can prove the charges against Castellanos. The bill of information states that the government will try to seize property Castellanos purchased with the money. Florida public records show he bought the 6,000-square-foot home in 2008 and the five cars between January 2008 and April 2009. The felony charge against Castellanos comes on the heels of Friday's news that the head of HANO's rental voucher programs, Dwayne Muhammad, was using a Section 8 voucher to pay his own rent, even as he received a $100,000 government salary. And just before Castellanos left HANO in June, the FBI raided the authority's offices after three employees were accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a separate accounting ruse. Although Letten's office declined to elaborate on how Castellanos' alleged scheme worked, a separate audit report filed in January by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general details a part of what happened. That report questioned $97,193 in charges by the agency's contracted chief financial officer. From at least September 2006 until January 2009, that position was held by Castellanos, working for the Coral Gables, Fla., accounting firm Alberni, Caballero & Castellanos. The report says the authority, led by a federally designated HUD receiver, hired Castellanos and his associates and placed them in charge of monitoring their own contract. In a limited review of some invoices from September 2006 to March 2008, the inspector general's auditors found the contractor overcharged HANO, mostly by invoicing work by employees who weren't part of the contract and weren't approved by the housing authority. HANO officials told the inspector general that the overcharged money had been recovered, but in reality only a few thousand dollars of it had been, the inspector general's report said. The audit findings were handed over to criminal investigators, who found the problem was nearly 10 times larger than the initial audit had reported. Castellanos was removed as chief financial officer in January when the audit came out, according to court records. But according to the bill of information against him, Castellanos continued to be "an agent of HANO" until June. Voicemail messages left at two numbers listed for Castellanos' home in Davie were not returned Monday evening, and there is no record of who his attorney is. HUD spokesman Jerry Brown declined to comment on what he called a continuing investigation. HANO's general counsel Wayne Woods couldn't be reached for comment. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 ...or the next head of the Fed. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-09-02 10:35 |
| #4 Czar |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-09-02 07:49 |
| #3 Well, Castellanos has shown he can be piss away US Federal government money. Isn't that the primary qualification to be a Congresscritter? |
| Posted by: GORT 2009-09-02 07:38 |
| #2 Separate public records show that during the same time period the fiscal manager, Elias Castellanos, 43, bought a $1.6 million mansion in Davie, Fla., just north of Miami, and five late-model cars -- including a Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than $200,000, a Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes-Benzes. Are the natives flamboyant? |
| Posted by: Gladys 2009-09-02 06:41 |
| #1 Talk about "going native"... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-09-02 00:33 |