Upper Marlboro Man Convicted in $1.4m Fraud Case

Daren Kareem Gadsen, an Upper Marlboro resident, was convicted for running a complicated fraud which saw him steal almost $1.4 million from the Baltimore Housing Authority, according The Baltimore Sun.

Gadsen, who went by the alias "D", hatched the scheme while he was a landlord who participated in Baltimore's Housing Choice Voucher Program, more commonly known as Section 8 housing. 

"The defendants stole from the Baltimore Housing Authority by transferring money directly out of the Authority’s bank account,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein in a 2012 FBI media release announcing indictments against Gadsen and three others in relation to the case. “The $1,399,700 stolen from the Baltimore Housing Authority was supposed to be used to provide housing, not to line the pockets of criminals.”

Prosecutors said that in 2009 Gadsen was able to obtain the bank account information for the housing authority which he used to facilitate the transfers.

According to the FBI, Gadsen at first tried to directly transfer funds from the housing authority into his own bank account, costing the housing authority a few thousand dollars. Upon discovering this, Gadsen was confronted by housing authority officials. He denied any wrongdoing, but paid $1,400 to the housing authority to cover some of the missing money.

Prosecutors said that Gadsen, along with Suitland resident Tyeast "Peaches" Brown, and Washington, DC residents William Darden and Keith Daughtry, concocted a plot where they used Daughtry's social security card and birth certificate to obtain a false drivers license, created a fake contracting company as a front and began to transfer funds from the housing authority to the fake company.

Gadsen faces a maximum 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for his role in the conspiracy.