Two employees of HUD's Office of Inspector General for the Southeast/Caribbean District were honored recently with the "FBI Director Award" for their work in successfully prosecuting criminal wrongdoing in the Tampa, Florida, Housing Authority.

HUD Inspector General Special Agent Timothy Mowery and Senior Auditor Maxie Walls, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neil, received their honors for the investigation of the former Tampa Housing Authority (THA) Executive Director, Deputy Director for Planning and Development, and two contractors doing business with the THA.

The investigation began with a HUD OIG audit. The work Mowery and Walls did with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Attorneys Office resulted in indictments on a total of one hundred twenty five felony counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, gratuities, false statements, and money laundering. The indictments and informations alleged that Executive Director and the contractors conspired to subvert the THA bidding process to award contracts to certain contractors who were not eligible to receive the contracts, or who were preselected.

Many of these were "no bid" contracts that the Housing Authority awarded through a resident joint venture program. This proved to be a scheme to get contracts directly to specific contractors without following traditional and legitimate bidding procedures. The scheme enabled the contractors to submit false invoices for work that had not been completed - which the Executive Director approved for payment - and submit "change orders" to increase contract amounts when no additional work or costs were incurred - which the Executive Director also approved.

The contractors then paid "kickbacks" to the Executive Director. The Executive Director and two of the contractors went to trial and SA Mowery was responsible for scheduling witnesses and organizing over 1900 government exhibits for presentation at trial. As a result of the thoroughness of Senior Auditor Walls' audit and SA Mowery's investigative efforts and trial preparations, two individuals pled guilty prior to the trial, while the Executive Director and one of the contractors were convicted after a three week trial. The Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director, and the contractors received prison sentences ranging from 18 months to 41 months in prison and court-ordered restitution totaling over $225,000.