The Enhanced One Shot Deal (EOSD) program administered by the Human Resources Administration (HRA) is an emergency assistance program to which HRA makes a one-time cash assistance payment to qualifying individuals. Which neither Jerome Weah nor Rudean Weir from Jamaica qualified for. But that did not stop them from defrauding the program of $5.4 million.
New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA) provides cash to homeless veterans of the United States Armed Services seeking permanent housing. The program offers one-time cash assistance to help people move from temporary to permanent housing and can be used for rent, security deposits, broker’s fees and other expenses. From 2020 to 2022, the New York City Human Resources Administration received more than 340 fraudulent program applications a from Weir and Weah but with stolen identities. The city investigator found that the applications included fraudulent lease agreements between veterans and one particular landlord. The landlord? Weir and Weah! The applications also contained fake identification cards and forms requesting payment to a company for brokerage services. Whose brokerage business? Weir and Weah!
Over one thousand fraudulent checks were cashed by Weir and Weah. Eventually it was discovered that neither of these two fraudsters were homeless. As part of their court mandated $6 million restitution, all seven properties were taken for reimbursement of stolen funds. That’s right! Seven properties funded by “One Shot Deals!” Weah was sentenced to almost four years in prison and Weir was sentenced to almost three years.
Great job by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General for their assistance in this investigation.
Today’s Fraud Of The Day is based on article “Two Jamaicans sent to prison for fraud” published” published by Jamaica News on April 26, 2023.
The two Jamaicans will spend time behind bars for plotting to defraud a programme for New York City’s homeless veterans of more than US$5.4 million. Rudean Weir, 38 of Atlanta, and 47 year-old Jerome Weah, of Trenton, New Jersey, reportedly filed hundreds of fraudulent applications for cash assistance through the Enhanced One Shot Deal program.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and unsealed on July 6 last year. Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Jerome Weah was sentenced earlier this month in Manhattan federal court to 46 months in prison. The other accused, Rudean Weir, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on March 30 for his participation in the scheme.
