United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg today announced that Chief United States District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp, sentenced Tamika Payne, age 35 of Omaha, Nebraska, following her conviction for conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Payne was sentenced to probation for five years including six months of location monitoring. She was also ordered to pay restitution to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services in the amount of $141,091.18.
Payne was friends with coconspirator Jason Armstrong. Armstrong worked as a case manager for the Nebraska Aids Project where he was tasked with addressing the needs of Nebraska clients living with HIV/AIDS. Armstrong linked clients to appropriate resources which included housing assistance. Armstrong, working in concert with Payne, submitted fraudulent applications for housing benefits that were paid out with funds provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The applications were fraudulent, in some instances, because they had been submitted in the names of people who were not clients of the Nebraska Aids Project. In other instances, the applications were submitted in the names of actual clients but the submissions were made without the clients’ knowledge or consent. Checks would be issued in response to the fraudulent applications and the proceeds would be split between Armstrong and Payne. Payne’s role consisted, in part, of signing “landlord certifications" which falsely represented she was the landlord of the properties where the bogus clients lived. She also cashed checks generated by the scheme and split the proceeds with Armstrong. During the course of the scheme approximately $141,091.18 in fraudulent benefits were paid out. Jason Armstrong was sentenced in March of 2014 to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons to serve a sentence of 24 months. He was likewise ordered to pay restitution in the same amount.
This case was investigated by the United States Secret Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
