Press Release
Former Framingham Housing Authority Employee Sentenced For Embezzling Rent Payments
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts
BOSTON – A Milford woman was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with embezzling over $70,000 in rent payments owed to the Framingham Housing Authority (FHA).
Rosa A. Famania, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris to five months in prison and three years of supervised release. In addition, Famania must complete five months in a residential or inpatient substance abuse facility upon her release from prison and pay approximately $70,649 in restitution to the FHA. In December 2016, Famania pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling money from an agency receiving federal funds.
In February 2010, Famania began working for FHA as an accounting assistant. She resigned from her position in August 2015, shortly after FHA suspended her in connection with an internal investigation into missing rent payments. Famania’s responsibilities at the FHA included collecting cash rent payments from FHA tenants, recording the cash payments in the FHA electronic accounting system, securing the cash payments in a locked cash box and depositing the cash payments into an FHA bank account.
Between February 2014 and August 2015, Famania stole approximately 181 cash rental payments totaling $70,649 from FHA and used an FHA accounting software program to conceal the ongoing theft. Specifically, Famania collected the cash rent payments, but rather than depositing the payments into the FHA bank accounts, she kept the payments and adjusted the tenants’ balance downward using the accounting software. From July 2014 to July 2015, Famania deposited approximately $55,100 in cash to a personal bank account. Furthermore, from August 2014 to August 2015, Famania transferred approximately $41,400 of those funds in the form of treasurer checks into another bank account that she controlled. Postal records additionally revealed that Famania obtained 19 U.S. Postal Service money orders totaling $17,900 in 2014.
Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; Christina Scaringi, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, New York Field Office; Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Framingham Police Chief Kenneth Ferguson, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Bloomer of Weinreb’s Public Corruption Unit prosecuted the case.
Updated April 27, 2017
Topic
Public Corruption
Component