Former Rochester Housing Authority Chair Going To Prison For Fraud, Money Laundering And Lying To The FBI

CONTACT: Barbara Burns
PHONE: (716) 843-5817
FAX #: (716) 551-3051

BUFFALO, N.Y. - U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that George H. Moses, 53, of Rochester, NY, who was convicted by a federal jury for his role in defrauding three nonprofit organizations; Rochester Housing Charities (RHC), which provides housing to the elderly and disabled; the North East Area Development (NEAD), which assists low-income residents in the northeast quadrant of Rochester; and Quad A for Kids, which provided after-school and extended-day learning programs at some elementary schools in the Rochester City School District, was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Moses, who was also the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Rochester Housing Authority (RHA), was convicted of mail, wire, and tax fraud, federal program fraud, money laundering, and lying to the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard A. Resnick, Melissa M. Marangola, and Meghan K. McGuire, who handled the prosecution of the case, stated that Moses used money from the RHC and grant funds earmarked for the community for his own personal use, including to purchase a vehicle, a time share in Florida, a cruise, tickets to a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, health products, car repairs for his family’s vehicles, personal credit card payments, and multiple trips to Canada to visit his girlfriend at the apartment they had in Canada. Moses also paid wages to approximately 17 family members employed by NEAD and RHC.

In addition to defrauding Rochester Housing Charities and the Rochester Housing Authority, Moses was also convicted of:

• Lying to the FBI regarding his hiring of Adam McFadden as a subcontractor for RHC in 2015. McFadden, a former city councilmember, pleaded guilty to defrauding RHC with respect to the subcontract and is awaiting sentencing. Moses concealed the fact that he hired McFadden after McFadden was forced to resign as the Interim Executive Director of the RHA. 
• Defrauding the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY). As Executive Director of the NEAD, Moses applied for a $125,000 grant for renovation of the Freedom Market, owned by Freedom Community Enterprise Inc., a subsidiary of NEAD. After receiving the grant, Moses and a co-conspirator Shirley Boone tricked DASNY into believing that NEAD paid Freedom Community $45,000 for construction work which never occurred.  As a result, DASNY reimbursed NEAD $45,000 to which it was not entitled.   Moses used the funds to pay wages to his family members employed by NEAD.
• Filing false tax returns for the years 2014 through 2018.  He failed to report income he received from NEAD and the RHC, as well as took false deductions with respect to his wife’s cleaning business and falsely claimed childcare expenses.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Stansbury, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge, Jerome Winkle, and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Thomas Fattorusso, Special Agent-in-Charge.

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