Man sentenced for stealing $1.5M from Boston homeless shelter he ran

A former government director of a now-defunct Boston homeless shelter was sentenced on Thursday for stealing $1.5 million from the non-profit group. Utilizing shell accounts and fraudulent invoices in a scheme to siphon over 1,000,000 {dollars} from a company he had “full management” over, in line with Legal professional Normal Maura Healey’s Workplace.

On Thursday, Manuel Duran, 70, of West Roxbury, former government director and board president of Casa Nueva Vida (CNV), a now-closed publicly funded non-profit homeless shelter that had areas in Boston and Lawrence, pleaded responsible in Suffolk County Superior Court docket to the next fees:

4 counts of perjury, three counts of larceny over $1,200, and two counts of creating false entries in a company guide. Following Duran’s responsible plea, a Suffolk county decide sentenced him to at least one yr within the Home of Correction adopted by 4 years of probation, with the situations that he completes 250 hours of neighborhood service and may not work as a fiduciary or in transitional housing, in line with Legal professional Normal’s Workplace.

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The Legal professional Normal’s Workplace beforehand advisable a sentence of 4 to 6 years in state jail, with six years of concurrent probation.

Duran was additionally ordered to pay restitution with the quantity to be decided at a listening to at a later date in December.

The prison fees positioned in opposition to Duran are the results of a joint investigation by the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace and the Workplace of the Inspector Normal. The Inspector Normal’s Workplace launched an investigation following an nameless tip.

“A brief, nameless e mail to our fraud hotline sparked our investigation, which uncovered Duran’s theft of $1.5 million – funds supposed to assist among the most weak individuals in our neighborhood,” stated Performing Inspector Normal Natalie Monroe. “Our workplace, working with the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace, has ensured that Duran is held accountable for his actions.”

Duran was indicted on the costs in September 2021.

CNV, headquartered in Jamaica Plain, housed over 150 principally Spanish-speaking households at 14 areas in Boston and Lawrence. As CNV’s Govt Director, Duran basically had full management of CNV’s $7 million finances, officers said. Duran directed the procurement of web site alternatives and managed facility upkeep and staffing throughout all areas.

As of July 1, 2022, CNV’s shelter service applications had been adopted by Heading Residence, one of many largest emergency housing and shelter suppliers within the Boston space.

The investigation revealed that Duran used his government energy to lease 4 of his privately owned properties and one owned by a relative to CNV as shelter areas, permitting him to cover his embezzlement transactions via the areas, in line with officers.

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On behalf of CNV, Duran signed 4 annual disclosure varieties beneath oath, falsely testifying that the group, amongst different issues, was not a celebration to any transaction wherein any of its officers, administrators or trustees had a fabric monetary curiosity, the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace stated.

The varieties had been submitted to the Legal professional Normal’s Non-Revenue and Public Charities Division.

The investigation additional revealed three totally different fraudulent monetary schemes that Duran used to steal funds from CNV.

From 2014 to 2021, Duran siphoned greater than $1.1 million in lease cash paid by CNV for a shelter web site in Lawrence through the use of a shell firm he arrange as a center man, in line with the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace. Duran made inflated lease funds from CNV to the shell firm and had the non-profit pay lower than half of that quantity to the house owners of the property who had been unaware of the scheme.

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The prison investigation additionally revealed that between 2012 and 2020, Duran created faux invoices and contracts to acquire checks made out to 3 totally different distributors for work they by no means carried out. The distributors would money the checks with Duran current and supply the money on to him. Duran stole $242,012 from CNV in these fraudulent vendor funds for supposed fraudulent providers together with renovations, lead abatement and asbestos abatement.

The Legal professional Normal’s workplace additionally found that between 2014 and 2019, Duran stole roughly $140,831 from CNV by depositing the funds straight into his personal enterprise checking account. The paychecks had been made to a seasonal CNV upkeep worker who was in Puerto Rico when the paychecks had been issued.

In a separate civil matter, the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace sued Duran in September 2021 for abusing his place to improperly funnel state cash to himself. The lawsuit alleged Duran established shell corporations to buy properties he then leased to CNV at above-market charges, permitting him to funnel greater than $2 million in state funds to himself, officers said.

In January, the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace reached a civil settlement with Duran requiring him to pay $6 million and completely banning him from accepting a place as a fiduciary at a public charity; engaged on or with any enterprise related to the state or a state entity or any enterprise that receives cash from the state; and from forming a separate entity working beneath a distinct identify in an effort to violate the settlement.