Baltimore Woman Indicted For Alleged Theft From Former Employer To Pay For Vacations, Plastic Surgery, Clothes
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A Baltimore woman is indicted for theft from a Delaware company that receives federal funds to pay for her personal lifestyle- including plastic surgery, clothes and vacations.
April Pritchett, 37, was involved in a scheme to defraud her former employer, a property management and development company based in Wilmington, Delaware. The company gets funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Project-Based Section 8 Rental Assistance Program- which supports those with low-incomes to pay rent for otherwise unaffordable living.
According to the indictment, Pritchett was a property manager for two of the company's properties from 2015 to mid-2019. She would allegedly collect tenant payments in the form of money orders and change the payee field to her own name.
She then deposited over $95,000 of the money orders, meant for rent, into her own personal bank account. She used the payments to fund international vacations, plastic surgery and clothing.
The indictment says she hid her fraud by making false statements to her company's management to explain mounting rent delinquencies and making false entries into the company's tenant management system.
Pritchett is charged with theft from a program receiving federal funds. If she's convicted she faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
"The defendant is charged with abusing the trust of her employer and the tenants who entrusted her with their rent payments by diverting those funds for her personal use. My office is committed to prosecuting those who defraud Delaware businesses, particularly when those businesses are themselves partially funded with taxpayer dollars designed to assist low-income citizens in securing housing." said U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss.
