By KIMBERLEY HAAS
A Virginia man who worked as an assistant inspector general for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison after being convicted of engaging in a scheme to steer government contracts to a personal friend.
Eghbal “Eddie” Saffarinia, 63, of Front Royal, was sentenced on Thursday, according to a press release issued by officials at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Saffarinia was employed by HUD-OIG from 2012 to 2017 and oversaw the Office of Information Technology. He was also the head of contracting activity, according to court paperwork.
Prosecutors claim tens of millions of dollars in government business was affected.
Saffarinia allegedly concealed material facts about…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that they reached a $9 million agreement with an Ohio-based bank to resolve redlining allegations.
Redlining is an illegal practice in which lenders avoid providing credit services to individuals living in certain communities because of their race, color, or national origin.
It is alleged that from at least 2015 to 2021, Park National Bank, headquartered in Newark, Ohio, engaged in the pattern or practice of lending discrimination in the Columbus metropolitan area. The bank’s branches and mortgage lenders were concentrated in majority-white neighborhoods, and company leaders failed to take any meaningful measures to compensate for its lack of physical presence in majority-Black and Hispanic communities, according to…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Two Kentucky real estate professionals who allegedly conspired to rig bids for farmland and timber rights each face up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Barry Dyer and Mackie Shelton allegedly rigged the bids for hundreds of acres of farmland and a tract of timber rights during an auction in April of 2018. The auction took place in Allen County, Kentucky. The bidding reached a point where the only participants were Dyer, Shelton, and two men who had leased the farm together to grow tobacco, according to an article by Bill Estep at the Lexington Herald Leader. Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice claim Dyer and Shelton demanded $40,000 from these competing…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice are claiming that condominiums and apartment complexes in Hawaii were built without accessible features required by the Fair Housing Act. The federal act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of disability, race, color, religion, sex, familial status, and national origin. An amended complaint was filed Monday at the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. Two of the five properties cited were built with financial assistance from the federal government’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. They are Kahului Town Terrace, in Kahului, Maui, and Palehua Terrace, in Kapolei, Oahu. The other three properties are Napilihau Villages and Napili Villas, in Lahaina, Maui, as well as Wailea Fairway Villas,…
