December 21, 2006
MICHAEL J. GARCIA, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and DINEEN ANN RIVIEZZO, New York State Inspector General, announced the arrest today of JOHN MARCUCILLI, a Senior Housing Management Representative with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal ("DHCR"), and DARLEAN MARCUCILLI, a Police Administrative Aide with the New York City Police Department. They were charged with defrauding a federal low-income housing program. The defendants, who are married to each other, are charged in a scheme to fraudulently induce the DHCR to provide over $37,000 in Section 8 low-income housing assistance to DARLEAN MARCUCILLI by concealing from the DHCR that JOHN MARCUCILLI: (i) lived with DARLEAN MARCUCILLI and their children in their subsidized Section 8 residence; (ii) received significant income from the DHCR that he failed to report in required Section 8 certifications to the DHCR; and (iii) provided certain monies to DARLEAN MARCUCILLI and paid various household bills.
According to a Complaint unsealed earlier today, the DHCR, where JOHN MARCUCILLI has worked since approximately 1994, is the New York State agency responsible for, among other things, supervising the Section 8 rental assistance program, a program regulated and fully funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"). As part of the Section 8 Program, HUD pays subsidies, typically in the form of vouchers, for people to live in private housing. To be eligible to receive these vouchers under the Section 8 Program, participants in the Section 8 Program are periodically required to complete forms certifying the composition of the tenant family and the tenant family's gross income and/or assets. The DHCR then uses the forms to determine an individual's eligibility for the Section 8 Program and the amount of any subsidy.
The Complaint alleges that, prior to his employment with the DHCR, JOHN MARCUCILLI served as a property manager of an apartment building in the Bronx, New York, where DARLEAN MARCUCILLI lived with the assistance of Section 8 funding. JOHN and DARLEAN MARCUCILLI married in or about August 21, 1998, and lived together with two children in the Section 8 apartment until in or about July 2004.
According to the Complaint, the defendants, even after their marriage, continued to induce DHCR to pay Section 8 housing assistance for the Section 8 apartment, by filing a series of fraudulent certifications with the DHCR, in which they represented that DARLEAN MARCUCILLI's income primarily consisted of child support and disability payments, while failing to disclose that JOHN MARCUCILLI lived in the Section 8 residence, brought substantial income into the household, and paid household bills.
More specifically, as detailed in the Complaint, while the defendants received Section 8 housing assistance, JOHN MARCUCILLI provided tens of thousands dollars to DARLEAN MARCUCILLI, and also helped pay for many of her purchases from the Home Shopping Network and QVC, which totalled over $20,000.
The Complaint alleges that the MARCUCILLIs left Section 8 housing in approximately July 2004, when they purchased a home in Staten Island, with a mortgage of approximately $342,000. In their mortgage application, the MARCUCILLIs represented that DARLEAN MARCUCILLI worked as an assistant manager at an antique store, where she earned approximately $1,600 per month (a fact not disclosed in her Section 8 certifications to the DHCR), and that they had combined assets of approximately $100,000, the Complaint alleges.
DARLEAN MARCUCILLI has been an employee of the New York City Police Department since approximately June 1992, and has had the title of Police Administrative Aide.
The defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy, and one count of theft from a federally-funded program. JOHN MARCUCILLI, 46, and DARLEAN MARCUCILLI, 45, both reside in Staten Island, New York. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment. They are expected to make their initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge KEVIN NATHANIEL FOX in Manhattan Federal Court this afternoon.
Mr. GARCIA stated: "This case exposes a housing official who is charged with abusing a federal program designed to help low-income families with their housing needs. This kind of corruption harms families who rely on federal programs such as Section 8 for affordable housing, and the taxpayers who fund such programs."
Mr. GARCIA thanked the New York City Police Department and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, for their assistance in this investigation. Mr. GARCIA said the investigation is continuing.
Assistant United States Attorney MARCUS A. ASNER is in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
06-206
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