Chatham County housing authority director arrested, accused of $200,000+ in wire fraud
The executive director of the Chatham County Housing Authority has been federally indicted on charges of defrauding the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
JoAnn Johnson Davis used her position to run an elaborate scheme to pay herself, her friends and family with federal money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, prosecutors say.
Davis was arrested Friday in Greensboro by U.S. Marshals, arrest warrants show. She has been director of the Housing Authority based in Siler City since July 2012.
News of the arrest and the federal indictment was first reported Sunday by the Chatham News + Record. The indictment was filed in the Middle District of North Carolina on Feb. 13 and was unsealed Friday
Prosecutors accuse Davis of using her position to award over $200,000 in contracts for services to friends and family members in exchange for kickbacks that allowed her to profit from the bogus contracts.
Davis and four other people are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Davis is also charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, program fraud and false statements in violation of federal law, court records reviewed by The News & Observer show.
The four other co-conspirators — Clintess Roberta Barrett-Johnson, Mi’chelle Necole Bell-Johnson, Robert Johnson Jr. and Candace Agatha Brunson-Poole — were directly involved with the fraudulent activity in Davis’ office, according to the federal investigators.
Barrett-Johnson, Bell-Johnson and Johnson Jr. were also arrested on Friday by U.S. Marshals in Greensboro.
The fraud scheme also involved one former HUD employee and at least two former employees of the Durham Housing Authority, indictment documents show.
The Housing Authority isn’t part of Chatham County government and Davis was not a county employee, county spokeswoman Kara Dudley said in an email.
“The Chatham County Housing Authority’s mission in providing assistance for affordable and safe housing to residents of Chatham County fills a critical need,” Dudley said. “We trust that the Authority will continue this important work while these internal issues are resolved.”
The N&O reached out to Karen Howard, the chair of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, which appoints members to the Housing Authority’s board, but did not receive a response Monday evening.
Davis is still listed as the housing authority’s executive director on county websites.
How prosecutors say the fraud worked
As executive director, Davis has the authority to select winning bids for services like lawn care, facility cleaning and training for HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8.
Federal investigators say she knowingly paid people who included at least 13 friends and relatives for fraudulent contracts, for which she received a cut of the money.
The federal investigation went as far back as the fall of 2021 when federal officials first reached Davis and her associates with inquiries.
Davis instructed her co-conspirators to mislead or lie to investigators, prosecutors say.
In one instance, prosecutors say, Davis texted an unnamed co-conspirator the message “You can tell them I’m the big fat aunt you don’t (expletive) with.”
From January 2016 until April 2020, the Chatham County Housing Authority paid out over $200,000 for fraudulent “small purchase” contract work, according to the 32-page indictment.
Contract work for services is considered “small purchase” if it is between $2,000 and $100,000, according to HUD regulations.
One of the contracts cited in the indictment went to Bell-Johnson — a relative of Davis — who was paid roughly $84,000 by the Housing Authority between 2016 and 2020 for services that included language translation services and “inputting information into CCHA’s document management system.”
Another went to Johnson Jr., who was awarded various contracts for services that included premises inspection for the voucher program. He is also a relative of Davis.
Another co-conspirator was former HUD employee Brunson-Poole, named as a friend of Davis. Brunson-Poole’s job included being a portfolio management specialist. She was aware that providing paid services to a public housing authority like Chatham’s could only be done through a conflict waiver from HUD, which was not done, prosecutors allege.
Known and unknown co-conspirators would generate false bid proposals for contracts using peoples’ stolen identities and the company letterheads of those people to compete against the proposals of Davis’ family and friends, in order to feign legitimacy.
Another 14 people are included as unindicted co-conspirators in the documents.
Davis previously worked at the Durham Housing Authority and the Gaston County Housing Authority.
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This story was originally published February 27, 2023 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Chatham County housing authority director arrested, accused of $200,000+ in wire fraud."
