A Jacksonville landlord is facing federal wire fraud charges following a review of payments through a City Hall rental-help program.
Edward Malone, 52, pleaded not guilty June 29 to charges that a prosecutor said were developed through the city’s Office of Inspector General.
An indictment that was sealed after being issued in May accused Malone of submitting nine fraudulent leases and nine bogus landlord applications to the city’s branch of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a pandemic-era program that used federal money to help people in financial trouble pay their rent.
The city worked with United Way of Northeast Florida in 2021 to distribute $23.8 million in federal emergency funds designed to help both renters and landlords strained by the number of people whose income was upended by the pandemic.
But, like the fraud claims that proliferated around the Paycheck Protection Program for employers, concerns that scammers might be abusing the rental program multiplied.
In January 2024, Jacksonville’s OIG said it had uncovered five previously unreported cases of rental assistance fraud involving about $314,000, alerting state and federal prosecutors.
Malone’s indictment said he owned 18 residential properties and seven commercial sites. Over six months in 2021, the indictment said, he filed landlord applications for rental-assistance payments, eventually collecting at least $54,100.
The indictment said money was sent into two different checking accounts, so he was charged with two counts of wire fraud, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
If he’s convicted, Malone would have to forfeit the $54,100 as well as face the potential of time behind bars.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville landlord charged with wire fraud over rent-aid payments
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
