Ernest Eugene Brown
Introduction
Ernest Eugene Brown, 52, of Columbia, South Carolina, has pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft for his role in embezzling funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Columbia Housing Authority’s (CHA) Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) program. Brown previously served as Vice President of the HCV program, the position he used to divert rent payments into his own accounts, and U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie accepted his guilty plea.
Background Information
The Housing Choice Voucher program is HUD’s federal housing-subsidy mechanism, administered locally by the Columbia Housing Authority, under which rent payments flow to landlords who house voucher holders. Brown used his position at CHA to fraudulently direct rent payments to his personal accounts by using various existing CHA vendors: he accessed the CHA system and replaced the legitimate vendors’ bank routing and account numbers with his own account numbers. By associating his own bank account information with the legitimate landlords, Brown stole the landlords’ identities to embezzle the funds from HUD and the CHA.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Pleaded guilty. Brown admitted aggravated identity theft for the vendor bank-account swap scheme, admitting he embezzled approximately $20,340 and attempted to embezzle an additional $8,327.94.
The admitted conduct is small in dollar terms compared with the multi-million-dollar frauds the site documents, but the mechanism — a housing-authority vice president rerouting subsidized rent payments by overwriting landlords’ banking details — touches the voucher program’s most vulnerable participants: the landlords and tenants who depend on the payments landing correctly. The aggravated-identity-theft count to which he pleaded carries its own mandatory two-year prison term, consecutive to any other sentence.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Brown faces the mandatory two-year penalty, a fine of up to $250,000, restitution, and one year of supervised release to follow the term of imprisonment. Judge Currie will sentence Brown after receiving and reviewing a sentencing report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office. The case was announced against the backdrop of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, created April 7, which the release describes as focused on fraud against federal benefit programs in support of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.
Current Status
Brown awaits sentencing following the accepted plea. The case was investigated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney T. DeWayne Pearson. No sentencing date appears in the announcement, which states only that it will follow the presentence report.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Brown’s career in public housing administration is over: a guilty plea to aggravated identity theft committed from the vice presidency of the very program he administered is a disqualifying conviction for any future role in HUD-subsidized housing, and the mandatory consecutive two-year term guarantees prison time regardless of the guidelines calculation. The restitution he owes will track the $20,340 embezzled, with the attempted additional $8,327.94 part of the conduct the court will weigh.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of South Carolina, “Columbia Man Pleads Guilty to Aggravated Identity Theft” — source