Former Head of Non-Profit Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Documents to Obtain HUD Funds Intended to Assist People with HIV/AIDS
Scheme Used Falsified Time Cards and Invoices

WASHINGTON—Mona Odom, 43, formerly of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to a federal charge stemming from a scheme in which she diverted federal grant funds intended to assist individuals with HIV/AIDS, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Odom, who now resides in New Jersey, pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of making a false statement. The Honorable James E. Boasberg scheduled sentencing for October 12, 2011. Odom faces up to five years of imprisonment. As part of her plea, she has agreed to pay $15,180 in restitution.

According to the government’s evidence, Odom was the president of Lurn-N-Ern, a nonprofit organization in Northeast Washington that was incorporated in 1997 for the purpose of “preparing youth for the most fruitful and meaningful roles they are capable of fulfilling...”

In August 2005, Odom submitted an application to the D.C. Department of Health to obtain $135,461 in federal grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The application materials proposed that Lurn-N-Ern would provide housing and services to “twenty (20) HIV/AIDS infected women who are 22 years of age and older, who are without health care and safe, decent, affordable housing.”

Lurn-N-Ern subsequently was awarded a grant up to the full amount of $135,461. Under the grant agreement, Lurn-N-Ern was required to submit invoices to receive grant funds.

During the summer of 2006, Odom submitted fraudulent invoices and time cards for two Lurn-N-Ern consultants. Odom inflated the hours that one of them worked at Lurn-N-Ern during the month of July 2006. In addition, Odom never actually paid this person for any of the work performed that month. Odom also submitted two time cards falsely showing that the second person worked 11-hour shifts for more than 60 evenings in a row. This person was Odom’s mother and lived in New Jersey. Odom also faxed a fraudulent resume for her mother to the D.C. Department of Health falsely claiming that her mother resided in Washington, D.C., and that she worked at the Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Machen and Assistant Director McJunkin commended the outstanding investigative work of agents and analysts from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the District of Columbia Office of Inspector General.

U.S. Attorney Machen and Assistant Director McJunkin also praised the efforts of members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including former Paralegal Specialist Carolyn Cody, Paralegal Specialists Diane Hayes and Sarah Reis, Legal Assistants Jared Forney and Krishawn Graham, SEEP Student Sierra Tate, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Zeno, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Johnson, who is prosecuting the case.

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