Former Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority legal counsel and friend charged with fraud
The two defendants in a recently filed, multiple-count federal indictment for money laundering, wire fraud and other charges pleaded not guilty in the federal court yesterday.
Attorney Mark Smith, former Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority legal counsel; and his friend, flight attendant Glenn Wong, appeared in the U.S. District Court in front of Judge Joaquin Manibusan.
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The defendants were arrested last week on an indictment that accuses them of conspiring to hide Smith's ownership of certain houses, apartment units and a condo so he could continue to receive payments as landlord to GHURA clients, whose rent is paid by the federally funded Section 8 housing rent voucher program.
They're accused of creating real estate and bank transactions to show Smith had sold the properties to Wong and that Wong was the new landlord. However, the bank transactions allegedly showed the federally funded rent money went from Wong to Smith, the indictment states.
Wong also faces an additional charge of falsely claiming more than $680,000 cash in a bank account as his asset, when filling out a bank loan application.
Read more: https://www.postguam.com/news/local/charged-with-fraud-could-go-to-trial-in-june/article_ca0c2bc4-1423-11e7-934e-33bb255ba8c6.html
