Marietta Section 8 Overseers, Landlords Sentenced for Fraud

Three people have been sentenced to federal prison for a scheme which allegedly involved four people and stole $230,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development between January 2011 and June 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division announced Monday.

Shantel Bowens and Debbie Bailey worked for the City of Marietta’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which was responsible for landlord and tenant participation in the Section 8 program, which provides rental assistance to low-income families. Babatunde “Babs” Abass, was a landlord participating in the program.

In 2011, Bowens and Bailey began reactivating the closed accounts of Section 8 tenants who were eligible for the largest federal payments. These fraudulently re-activated accounts were manipulated by Bailey to show that the tenants were living with Abass and a fourth defendant. The federal government then began sending rent payments for these nonexistent tenants.

The two landlords kept 40 percent of the money, and gave the remainder to Bailey, who split it with Bowens. This scheme, which was only shut down in June 2013, netted the four defendants approximately $230,000 in fraudulent federal rent payments.

Bowens also falsified computer records to allow herself to live rent-free in Section 8 housing between January 2010 and June 2013, at a cost of some $40,000 to the federal government.

Three of the four defendants in the case pleaded guilty to the theft allegations between May and July of this year. The fourth defendant, landlord Tunji Imoukhuede, was arraigned on Sept. 17. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Bailey pleaded guilty on May 27 and was sentenced to 14 months in prison followed by three years of probation, and was ordered to pay $234,977 in restitution.

Abass pleaded guilty on June 11 and was sentenced to 10 months in prison followed by three years of probation, and was ordered to pay $80,349 in restitution.

Bowens pleaded guilty on July 27 and was sentenced to 26 months in prison followed by three years of probation, and was ordered to pay $275,871 in restitution.

“By stealing funds from the Section 8 program, these defendants deprived needy families of suitable, safe housing,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively prosecute government program fraud and criminals who steal from those most in need.”