Three convicted by jury of housing authority kickback conspiracy

 

Date: November 1, 2023

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

SOUTH BEND — Tonya Robinson, Albert Smith, and Douglas Donley were each found guilty of various federal felony charges following an eight-day jury trial presided over by United States District Court Senior Judge Jon E. DeGuilio, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

The jury found Robinson, Smith, and Donley guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. Donley was also found guilty of a single count of bank fraud. Robinson and Smith were found guilty of 6 counts of bank fraud, one count of wire fraud along with a single count of federal program theft. Smith was also found guilty of an additional wire fraud count. Three counts were dismissed against Donley during the trial and he was acquitted of four counts while Robinson was acquitted of one count.

Robinson, Smith, and Donley are all scheduled for sentencing on February 29, 2024. Any specific sentence to be imposed will be determined by the District Court Judge after consideration of federal statutes and the United States Sentencing Guidelines.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (CI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Luke N. Reilander, Joel Gabrielse, and Jerome W. McKeever.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.