Press Releases
PICAYUNE, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT SENTENCED FOR DEFRAUDING LOUISIANA ROAD HOME PROGRAM
October 29, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ROBERT LOMBARDINO, age 72, a resident of Picayune, Mississippi, was sentenced yesterday in federal court by U. S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr. to three (3) years probation after pleading guilty to a one-count Bill of Information for theft of government funds in connection with a Louisiana Road Home Program application, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Duval ordered the LOMBARDINO pay $113,865.00 in restitution to the Louisiana Road Home Program.
According to court documents, in 2007, LOMBARDINO applied for financial assistance for damage sustained on a property he owned located on Livaccari Drive in Violet, Louisiana, in the Eastern District of Louisiana, due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. In his Road Home application, LOMBARDINO represented that the address on Livaccari Drive was his primary residence on the date Hurricane Katrina struck. A subsequent investigation, however, revealed that LOMBARDINO was living elsewhere at the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall and renting the house on Livaccari Drive to someone else. LOMBARDINO opted to sell his property to the Road Home Program under Road Home Benefit Selection Option Two. As a result of his application, LOMBARDINO received approximately $134,000 belonging to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, who administered the program.
The case was investigated by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.
