COLUMBIA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 -- The U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Attorney's office for XXXXXX (insert district) issued the following press release:

COLUMBIA, S.C.- Ernest Eugene Brown,52, ofColumbia, has pleaded guilty toaggravated identity theft for his role in embezzling funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Columbia Housing Authority's (CHA) Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) program.

Brown previously served as Vice President of the HCV program. Brown used his position to fraudulently direct rent payments to his personal accounts by using various existing CHA vendors. Brown accessed the CHA system and replaced the legitimate vendors' bank routing and account numbers with his own account numbers. By associating his ...