A Fort Wayne woman arrested Wednesday is being accused of defrauding the federal government through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program designed to keep people in their homes during the COVID pandemic.
Dora Boyd is the founder of Sowing Seeds Outreach, a legal assistance nonprofit. A federal grand jury indicted her on 18 counts of wire fraud, accusing her of bilking the government out of more than $160,000.
According to the indictment, between March and November of 2021 Boyd submitted fraudulent applications for assistance, pretending to be a landlord for several tenants when that wasn’t true.
She also is accused of falsifying lease agreements and tax forms.
More than $400,000 worth of fraud is detailed in the indictment.
According to the criminal charges, tenants did not authorize Boyd to use their addresses.
The government is also seeking forfeiture of nearly $167,000 in assets they can identify, and substitutions of value for any assets they cannot sort out, according to court documents.
