DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
July 2, 2009

Contact: Alicia Maxey Greene
212-335-9400

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the indictment and arrest of a Bronx man for directing a fraudulent scheme to obtain subsidized apartments for unqualified tenants by filing false applications with the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

The defendant, AMADOU “BEBE” LAMOUDI, 39, was indicted on charges of offering a false instrument for filing. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between August 17, 2007 and March 5, 2008.

The investigation leading to today’s indictment and arrest revealed that LAMOUDI, who himself has lived in an HDC-sponsored apartment since 2003, orchestrated a scheme by which he would charge ineligible applicants a fee in exchange for helping them structure a successful application. He typically would instruct applicants to falsify their earnings on the application forms in order to meet HDC’s income requirements. Then, when a purportedly eligible applicant was selected by lottery for further processing, LAMOUDI would direct the applicant to others who would supply the applicant with false documents, including false pay stubs and/or income tax returns, which would serve as ostensible proof of the false income reported previously on the applications. LAMOUDI then would instruct the applicants to submit those false documents in the course of the application process. By these means, LAMOUDI orchestrated the filing of false housing applications to HDC for his personal profit.

Some applicants who paid LAMOUDI were low-income immigrants with limited proficiency in English who actually made too little money to satisfy the minimum income requirements for the apartments. Other applicants made too much money to qualify and were directed to fraudulently under-state their income. LAMOUDI would charge his clients $1,000 or more for his assistance.

Low-income apartments are limited in number. Every time an ineligible application containing false information is approved, a truly eligible family is deprived of affordable housing. LAMOUDI’s scheme posed a direct threat to the goals that affordable housing programs are designed to serve.

HDC was established as a public benefit corporation by the State of New York in 1971 and is responsible for financing the creation and preservation of affordable housing within the five boroughs of New York City. The financing provided by HDC is in the form of low-cost mortgages made with funds obtained through the sale of tax-exempt and taxable bonds. These mortgages are provided to private developers who, in return, allocate certain apartments within a given construction project as affordable housing with below market rents. These HDC-backed apartments have strict income requirements for eligible tenants set by HDC. In order to qualify, applicants must satisfy both minimum and maximum income limits which vary depending on household size. All applications must be approved by HDC.

The New York City Department of Investigation’s Office of the Inspector General for HDC commenced an investigation when HDC staff members flagged several suspicious low-income housing applications for further review.

The Grand Jury heard evidence about three of the fraudulent applications orchestrated by LAMOUDI. The indictment charges LAMOUDI with three counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a class E felony which is punishable by up to 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.

LAMOUDI was arrested this morning and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in State Supreme Court, Part 1. The investigation is continuing.

Mr. Morgenthau thanked Rose Gill Hearn, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, Joseph Piazza, Inspector General for the New York City Housing Development Corporation, and his staff, including Special Counsel Catherine Riccards and Investigator Marcel Dimbeng.

Assistant District Attorney Savvas S. Diacosavvas is handling the prosecution under the supervision of Thomas Wornom, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau.

Defendant Information:

AMADOU LAMOUDI (a/k/a BEBE), 9/16/1969
678 Sagamore Street
Bronx, New York

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