Women Charged with Providing False information

Rose Gill Hearn, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investiga-tion, announced the arrest of a Bronx woman on charges that she provided false information regarding her income, employment, and dependents, to the City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the City Human Re-sources Administration and as a result fraudulently obtained more than $53,000 in Section 8 and public assistance bene-fits she was not entitled to receive. DOI’s investigation began after it was notified that the defendant was working out of state.The office of Bronx County Dis-trict Attorney Robert T. Johnson is prosecuting the case.

Kyenette Underwood, 38, of the Bronx, was arrested Thursday, February 25, 2010, and charged with grand larceny in second degree and welfare fraud in the second degree, class C felonies, and grand larceny in the third degree, a class D felony.Upon conviction, a class C felony is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a class D felony by up to seven years in prison.

According to the criminal complaint, between January 2004 and May 2008 Un-derwood received public assistance benefits from HRA. The investigation found that the defendant made false statements to HRA related to her income and number of dependents when she re-certified for benefits and as a result re-ceived more than $50,000 in public assis-tance she was not entitled to receive. In addition, between January 2004 and De-cember 2006, Underwood was a recipient of Section 8 benefits administered through HPD for an apartment in the Bronx. The investigation found that the defendant made false statements related to her income and number of dependents when she recertified and as a result ob-tained more than $3,000 in Section 8 bene-fits she was not entitled to receive.

Gill Hearn thanked the Bronx County District Attorney Robert T. Johnson, HRA Commissioner Robert Doar, HPD Commissioner Rafael E. Cestero, and their staffs for their assistance in this investigation.

The investigation was conducted by DOI’s Offices of Inspectors General for HPD and HRA, including Inspectors Gen-eral Peter Zanolin and Pat Russo and Investigators Hamid Beltre and Angie Wells.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Klein of the Bronx County District At-torney’s Office has been assigned to the prosecution.

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