Ohio Woman Pleads Guilty to Stealing $150,000 in Federal HUD Funds
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 21, 2014 |
HUNTINGTON, WV—Connie Lynn Whitley, 51, of South Point, Ohio, pled guilty today to embezzling $150,000 from an apartment complex that received federal funds, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin. Whitley was the manager of the Uptowner Inn’s public housing apartments in Huntington, West Virginia. The apartments were subsidized by the United States Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD provided federal funds to pay a portion of the market rent at the apartments for qualifying tenants. Beginning in the summer of 2009 and continuing until September 2013, Whitley wrote checks to herself from the apartments’ HUD accounts. In total, Whitley stole more than $150,000 in federal HUD funds. She faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced on July 28, 2014.
The West Virginia State Police conducted the investigation assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department for Housing and Urban Development.