Date: December 1, 2021 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Buffalo, NY — U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that a federal jury has convicted George H. Moses of Rochester, NY, on 28 of 29 counts for his role in defrauding three nonprofit organizations; Rochester Housing Charities (RHC), which provides housing to the elderly and disabled; the North East Area Development (NEAD), which assists low-income residents in the northeast quadrant of Rochester; and Quad A for Kids, which provided after-school and extended-day learning programs at some elementary schools in the Rochester City School District. Moses was also the chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Rochester Housing Authority (RHA). The charges include mail fraud, wire fraud, federal program fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, and lying to the FBI. The charges cumulatively carry a maximum penalty of more than 200 years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard A. Resnick, Melissa M. Marangola, and Meghan K. McGuire, who handled the prosecution of the case, stated that Moses used money from the RHC and grant funds earmarked for the community for his own personal use, including to purchase a vehicle, a time share in Florida, a cruise, tickets to a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, health products, car repairs for his family's vehicles, personal credit card payments, and multiple trips to Canada to visit his girlfriend at the apartment they had in Canada. Moses also paid wages to approximately 17 family members employed by NEAD and RHC. In addition to defrauding Rochester Housing Charities and the Rochester Housing Authority, Moses was also convicted of: Two counts of lying to the FBI regarding his hiring of Adam McFadden as a subcontractor for RHC in 2015. McFadden, a former city councilmember, pleaded guilty to defrauding RHC with respect to the subcontract and is awaiting sentencing. Moses concealed the fact that he hired McFadden after McFadden was forced to resign as the Interim Executive Director of the RHA. Defrauding the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY). As Executive Director of the NEAD, Moses applied for a $125,000 grant for renovation of the Freedom Market, owned by Freedom Community Enterprise Inc., a subsidiary of NEAD. After receiving the grant, Moses and a co-conspirator Shirley Boone tricked DASNY into believing that NEAD paid Freedom Community $45,000 for construction work which never occurred. As a result, DASNY reimbursed NEAD $45,000 to which it was not entitled. Moses used the funds to pay wages to his family members employed by NEAD. Five counts of filing false tax returns for the years 2014 through 2018. He failed to report income he received from NEAD and the RHC, as well as took false deductions with respect to his wife's cleaning business and falsely claimed childcare expenses. "As a leader in the Rochester Housing Authority, George Moses was in a position of trust with access to public funding intended for those most in need in our community," stated U.S. Attorney Ross. "As a federal jury concluded, George Moses broke that trust, stole public funding, and will now face the consequences for the choices he made." The verdict is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Fattorusso, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen Belongia, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Brad Geary. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date before Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford who presided over the trial.
