logo
State accuses Davenport woman of fraud through Rental Utility Assistance Program

State accuses Davenport woman of fraud through Rental Utility Assistance Program

Yahoo02-03-2025

A 56-year-old Davenport woman was in custody Saturday after the Iowa Finance Authority accused her of fraud, according to court records.
Donna Smith, who was arrested on a warrant on Friday, faces charges of first-degree fraudulent practice and ongoing criminal conduct, court records show.
Affidavits say that Smith knowingly executed or tendered false certification from about May 5, 2021, through Sept. 19, 2022, to get rental assistance through the Iowa Rental Utility Assistance Program.
Smith, affidavits show, 'did so by providing false/fictitious information and records to a state agency or subdivision for herself and a fictitious tenant. The information and records provided certified past due rent during the aforementioned time period in the amount of $13,650,' affidavits show.
Miller did not owe past due rent, 'nor was she the landlord owed past due rent,' and the Iowa Finance Authority 'unwittingly paid out $13,650 in COVID-19 related rental assistance funds erroneously,' court records show.
Additionally, another affidavit says that Miller and a co-defendant knowingly executed or tendered false certifications to the Iowa Finance Authority from about Aug. 31, 2021, through Sept. 16, 2022, to get rental assistance through the Iowa Rental Utility Assistance Program.
The two did this by providing false/fictitious information and records to a state agency or subdivision for three tenants living at a property owned by FIG Tree Holdings LLC and HABU Holdings LLC. The information and records provided certify that these three tenants owed past due rent during the aforementioned time period in the amount of $26,700, when their past due rent totaled only $14,245.
This resulted in an additional $23,625 in rental assistance being paid to FIG Tree Holdings, LLC and HABU Holdings LLC, owned by the co-defendant, who is not named in the affidavit, court records show.
'As a result, (Smith) and co-defendant deceived the Iowa Finance Authority who in turn unwittingly paid out $36,080 in COVID-19 related rental assistance funds erroneously,' according to affidavits.
Miller, who was being held Saturday on a total $135,000 bond, is scheduled for arraignment March 27 in Scott County Court.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

3 sentenced for pandemic-related unemployment fraud, ID theft
3 sentenced for pandemic-related unemployment fraud, ID theft

Yahoo

time40 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

3 sentenced for pandemic-related unemployment fraud, ID theft

ST. LOUIS – The last in a trio of people who committed COVID-19 pandemic-related unemployment fraud and stole dozens of identities along the way appeared in federal court on Friday to be sentenced. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Daryl Jones Jr., 46, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and wire fraud. Between June 22, 2020, and July 15, 2020, Jones fraudulently obtained $84,592 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on debit cards issued to him and four other people. Cheryl Johnson, Jones' girlfriend, provided some of the personal identifying information to Jones. She obtained this information by supervising the victims at various St. Louis area businesses. Those businesses were not identified in a federal statement obtained by FOX 2 News. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now On June 3, 2021, Jones submitted fake pay stubs from a phony business to obtain a $31,700 car loan. Jones and Johnson submitted counterfeit insurance cards to accept delivery of the car. The pair used James Whitiker's St. Louis County home to commit their crimes, prosecutors said. Later that month, authorities obtained a court-approved search warrant for the home. They found a notebook containing the names, Social Security numbers, and birthdates of nearly three dozen people, plus separates pieces of paper containing personal info of 18 more people. Investigators also recovered three stolen ID documents, nine Pennsylvania unemployment benefit debit cards, as well as stolen debit and credit cards. Jones was sentenced to 65 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $116,587. Johnson, 44, pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and wire fraud. She was sentenced on May 22 to 55 months in federal prison and ordered to repair $116,587. Whitiker admitted knowing that Jones and Johnson were using his home to commit fraud and to using two debit cards during the conspiracy. He pleaded guilty in July 2024 to a conspiracy charge and was sentenced this past October to three years in federal prison. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Former O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do headed to prison for COVID relief bribery scheme
Former O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do headed to prison for COVID relief bribery scheme

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Former O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do headed to prison for COVID relief bribery scheme

Andrew Do, the former Orange County supervisor who took more than $550,000 in bribes over COVID-relief money meant to buy meals for needy, elderly constituents, was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison. 'I just do not believe a sentence anything less than the maximum reflects the seriousness of the crime,' said U.S. District Judge James Selna. "Public corruption brings damage far beyond the monetary loss to the county." The judge expressed displeasure that the law allowed him to sentence Do to only five years. Do fled war-torn Vietnam with his family as a child to become an attorney and one of Southern California's most powerful Vietnamese American politicians. As part of a plea deal, Do admitted last year that he funneled more than $10 million in federal pandemic funds to a nonprofit that in turn steered money to his two daughters. The scandal was uncovered in 2023 by the news site LAist, which reported that Do approved contracts worth millions to the nonprofit, which promised to provide meals to the poor, elderly and disabled residents of Little Saigon but could show scant evidence of its effort. Do approved the contracts without disclosing that his 23-year-old daughter Rhiannon, a law student at UC Irvine, had signed documents identifying herself as the nonprofit's president or vice president. As accusations mounted, Do claimed he was the victim of slander, responding with defiant vitriol against the reporter who broke the story, Nick Gerda, and demanding his firing. When the Orange County Register called for Do's resignation, he accused the newspaper of spreading 'gross misinformation.' Late last year, however, Do agreed to resign from the Board of Supervisors and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Federal prosecutors said the Viet America Society gave Rhiannon a job, and paid her as an employee, after her father voted in favor of the lucrative contracts. Prosecutors also said the organization steered money to Do's other daughter through an air conditioning company. 'I'm very grateful that the judge saw the case for what it is,' said Janet Nguyen, the current First District Supervisor. 'He benefitted while people suffered. He took advantage during the pandemic, when no one was watching.' She said the county is conducting an audit to better understand how Do's scheme was allowed to occur. Prosecutors accused Rhiannon Do of making a false statement on a loan application, but agreed to defer the charge, allowing her to enter a diversion agreement in exchange for her cooperation. The elder Do, a Republican, worked as a deputy public defender and a prosecutor before he won a special election in 2015 to represent Orange County's 1st Supervisorial District, which covers Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Westminster and Seal Beach. He became the second Vietnamese American ever to serve on the board, and was later elected to two four-year terms. He was known for his efforts to combat homelessness and for his sponsorship of a Tet Festival in Fountain Valley that drew thousands of people annually. At a time when Vietnamese immigrants face increased threats of eviction and deportation, the disgraced supervisor's behavior 'erodes the already precarious level of trust our community has in the government,' said Mai Nguyen Do, the research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, a community group. 'After he's released, it wouldn't surprise me if he goes about his life, and meanwhile so many working-class people in the community don't have the resources to pick themselves up again after they're incarcerated,' said Do, who has no relation to the former supervisor. Jodi Balma, a professor of political science at Fullerton College who has followed the Do scandal, wondered how the bribery scheme somehow passed through the checkpoints of the county bureaucracy. 'There are really good and smart though somewhat annoying procedures in place to verify all contracts with the county,' Balma said. 'Somebody had to say, 'Approve that payment' without any receipts or verification or services. And those people have not been held responsible.' Balma also wondered whether it was fair that Rhiannon Do was allowed to enter a diversion program. 'If there is no punishment for his daughter, that feels unfair to all the other law students who might not be accepted to the California Bar Association because of misconduct,' Balma said. 'This is huge misconduct for someone who wants to be a lawyer.' Andrew Do's defense attorneys asked that he be sentenced to 33 months in prison. In a court filing, they said he had been volunteering at a maritime institute that teaches sailing to underprivileged teens, adding that the head of the program had praised Do's 'unwavering ethical compass.' The defense attorneys said that Do had expressed 'shame' and 'deep sorrow' for his crimes, that his license to practice law had been suspended and that his life has been 'destroyed by his own acts.' Do had 'received no actual payment to himself—all significant funds were provided to his daughter Rhiannon Do,' the defense wrote in a court motion, claiming he had been 'willfully blinded to the violations by the desire to see benefit to his adult daughter.… He now recognizes how completely wrong he was in this catastrophic self-delusion.' The plea deal called for restitution between $550,000 and $730,500, with the sale of the family's forfeited house in Tustin credited against that figure. 'This episode of poor judgment stands out as unique in his otherwise commendable life,' the defense wrote. 'He had a catastrophic lapse of judgment when he failed to stop payments to his daughters, and because VAS was helping his family, he failed to see the red flags of these illegal acts.' Pleading for leniency, defense attorneys invoked Do's backstory as a man who rose to public service after a childhood in war-ravaged Vietnam. But prosecutors said his background only amplified his guilt, considering many of the constituents he victimized had similarly difficult pasts, and he was aware of their vulnerability. Do 'made the decision to abandon the elderly, sick, and impoverished during a national emergency so that he could personally benefit,' prosecutors wrote. 'When the County and nation were at their most vulnerable, defendant saw an opportunity to exploit the chaos for his own benefit and, in so doing, betrayed the trust of hundreds of thousands of his constituents,' prosecutors wrote. 'The scheme was far-reaching and premeditated, and defendant had no qualms about pulling others into his criminal enterprise, including his own children.' Do's crimes, the prosecutors wrote, were 'an assault on the very legitimacy of government.' Calling his conduct 'despicable' and his attempt to minimize his crimes 'absurd,' prosecutors said that of the more than $10 million he steered to the Viet America Society , much of it supposedly for meal programs for the elderly and disabled, only $1.4 million went to that purpose. Do's willingness to involve his family in his scheme pointed to his 'moral indifference,' prosecutors said, while his campaign of invective against the press aggravated his culpability. In connection with the Do case, the U.S. Attorneys office announced charges last week of bribery against the founder of the Viet America Society, and for wire fraud against a man affiliated with another Orange County relief group. The judge ordered that Do surrender himself to federal custody by Aug. 15 and recommended he be incarcerated in the federal prison in Lompoc. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Baltimore's top prosecutor seeks funding for division he says helped lower city's crime rates
Baltimore's top prosecutor seeks funding for division he says helped lower city's crime rates

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Baltimore's top prosecutor seeks funding for division he says helped lower city's crime rates

BALTIMORE — Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates is asking the city to fund its division that reviews body camera footage, which he says has played a key role in helping drive down the city's crime rates. 'There's no more important division to the success of our office than the body-worn camera (division),' he said Wednesday at a city council budget hearing. The money for reviewing body camera footage previously came through federal COVID-19 grant funding, which is expiring at the end of this month. Bates has requested continued funding from both city and state leaders at a time when both are grappling with budget deficits. The two-year, $1.7 million grant was allocated by the Governor's Office of Crime Prevention and Policy, using funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The money allowed the state's attorney's office to hire 10 people for the division. This year, Bates is asking the city to provide another $864,000, enabling his office to hire 10 permanent full-time paralegals for its body camera unit. Bates said prior to receiving the grant, prosecutors were leaving the state's attorney's office because they didn't have enough time to review video footage as part of preparing their cases. Even if the key footage for a case lasts only five minutes, the total video that needs to be reviewed could be hours long, Bates said. With the grant, other staff can take the time to help review the footage. 'Now instead of that prosecutor spending those five hours on reviewing body camera footage, they now can spend those five hours preparing that case and other cases,' Bates said. He added that this was the 'secret sauce' his office needed in order to increase criminal convictions over the past two years. If no money is provided to replace the grant, Bates said his office will have to make budget cuts related to its work with partner agencies and organizations. The body camera division has reviewed 1,916 cases comprising 22,065 videos containing 14,621 hours of footage, Bates said. 'Ensuring accountability and transparency in law enforcement is crucial to fostering trust between the police and communities they serve,' Bates told council members during the hearing. The state's attorney's office has one Evidence Review Unit staff member for every 140 police officers in Baltimore City. The ratio in surrounding jurisdictions is smaller: 1 to 51 in Howard County, 1 to 69 in Anne Arundel County and 1 to 112 in Baltimore County. Bates said the industry standard is a ratio of 1 to 110. 'We're doing more with less compared to these other jurisdictions, but we still have so much more we need to do,' Bates said. Bates said the office's workload has increased because of an increased number of police arrests, including 'double' the number of cases in its misdemeanor jury trial division compared with last year. Councilmember Paris Gray asked Bates whether he had asked the governor or anyone else at the state level for the evidence review unit funding, noting the 'tremendous deficit' the city and state are both facing. Bates said his office reached out to the Governor's Office of Crime Prevention and Policy and that they will 'continue to talk to Governor Moore and his team.' 'That was one-time ARPA money, and so we'd have to try to find out a special way to try to do that,' Bates said. 'We're trying to find the money however we can.' Gray suggested Bates and Mayor Brandon Scott ask the governor to provide the funds if it's not fiscally possible for the city. The governor's and mayor's offices didn't respond to separate requests for comment about whether the state or city would provide the requested funding. Council President Zeke Cohen said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun that he supports the state's attorney's request for additional personnel to review footage from body cameras. 'This is a powerful tool for ensuring investigations can proceed in a timely manner to deliver justice for the victims of crimes and their families,' he said. Gray said Bates's office is operating with a $2 million surplus this year and asked for an explanation about his request for additional funding. Bates said that the office spent almost $900,000 of its rainy day funds to defend against a cyberattack and install a new firewall, and that the office needs money set aside to reconfigure employee raises. He added that the surplus resulted from the departure of a number of prosecutors with six-figure salaries. 'I'm a real big believer — if we're going to be stewards of the public's money — I do everything I can, and we try to do everything we can, not to ever have a deficit. Because you never know when a rainy day's going to happen,' Bates said. _____

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store