Bookkeeper for affordable housing program stole tenants’ rent payments, feds say

For a little over eight years, a Minnesota woman worked for a city program that received federal and state funding to “remedy the shortage of available low-incoming housing units.”

During that time, the bookkeeper “routinely embezzled” tenants’ rent payments, according to an Aug. 11 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. Officials said she stole at least $213,217 from the Albert Lea Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

Now, the 45-year-old woman from Albert Lea has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison, records show. She was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $213,217 in restitution.

Her defense attorney did not have a comment regarding the Aug. 9. sentencing.

The woman pleaded guilty in October to theft from a program receiving federal funds, court records show.

In her signed plea agreement, the woman said she stole rent payments “for her own personal use and benefit.”

“She did so by pocketing cash payments and altering the payee information on payments made by check and money order,” authorities said. The bookkeeper then “manipulated the HRA’s computer system to conceal the money she stole, avoid detection, and prolong her fraud scheme.”

McClatchy News requested comment from the Albert Lea HRA on Aug. 14 and was awaiting a response.

“The mission of the Albert Lea HRA is to provide safe and decent affordable housing to the communities and citizens it serves,” according to the agency’s website. Albert Lea HRA said it offers 176 units of public housing, eight units of rural development housing and 155 Section 8 housing choice vouchers.

Albert Lea is about 100 miles south of Minneapolis.