The first of 16 defendants charged by the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office and Office of State Inspector General (OSIG) with illegally receiving funds available due to the COVID-19 pandemic pled guilty Thursday morning in Lancaster County Court.

Danaziah Garcia, 25 of the 1800 block of Habecker Road, pled guilty to charges of theft by deception, criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen property, forgery, and unsworn falsification to authorities before Lancaster County Judge Margaret Miller, who accepted the plea.

Garcia will spend four years on probation and must pay $20,300.00 in restitution.

Garcia is one of 16 defendants charged in a scheme to submit fraudulent applications for rental assistance. The scheme was allegedly led by a former Lancaster County Housing and Redevelopment (LCHRA) employee, Brandice Reyes-Alvarez.  LCHRA is the public authority designated to accept and process Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) applications.

The Lancaster County ERAP was established in March 2021 to provide rental and utility payments to landlords and utility companies to keep residents housed during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Funding for the program was provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury directly to the County and by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the Department of Human Services.

LCHRA was responsible for reviewing assistance applications and the disbursement of the funds for rental assistance to tenants facing pandemic-related financial hardship.  Payments were made to landlords or directly to tenants when landlords chose not to participate.

The 15 remaining defendants’ cases are pending and are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The defendants each face a lead charge of theft by deception, a third-degree felony. Charges of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, conspiracy, identity theft, receiving stolen property, tampering with records or identification, theft by unlawful taking, and forgery have been filed in certain cases.

The investigation into the fraudulent applications began in June 2022 when a member of LCHRA contacted OSIG after uncovering several suspicious applications within ERAP.  The discovery occurred when internal procedures flagged program payments to an employee.  That application revealed inconsistent information and a phone number not associated with the landlord listed.  This phone number was identified on several other fraudulent applications.

The investigation revealed the defendants submitted fraudulent assistance applications containing false information that were supported by forged documents such as leases, statements of past due rent and other fraudulent documents.

The scheme involved providing a false phone number and landlord information on the assistance application, including a landlord who had passed away in 2018.  LCHRA staff would call the number provided on the application and receive verification from the person pretending to be a landlord that they did not want to participate in the program.  As a result, the funds would be provided directly to the tenant.

Checks were issued and sent directly to the applicant or e-deposited into bank accounts and, in several cases, investigators found that a portion of the proceeds was sent back to Reyes-Alvarez and other codefendants assisting in the scheme.

The money was claimed and received from June 2021 until August 2022 and losses total approximately $281,004.00.  After the discovery, the LCHRA immediately put steps into place to make sure additional fraud was flagged and no longer accepts electronic applications.  The ERAP program is ongoing, however, assistance is limited to preventing eviction.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Fetterman is prosecuting the cases.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sean McBryan, semcbryan@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @SeanMcBryanLanc.