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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Nonprofit Manager Arrested On Theft Charges

The manager of a property operated by a nonprofit in Tallahassee, Fl., has been arrested on charges that she allegedly stole rent payments from tenants.

Latangee Hart, 45, turned herself in last Friday and was released on bail the same day, according to a report in The Tallahassee Democrat. She faces a charge of grand theft for allegedly depositing rent paid in cash and money orders into her personal bank account. The property in question, the Maryland Oaks Crossing housing campus, is operated by Good News Outreach, a Christian faith-based nonprofit. The property contains 48 rent-subsidized homes.

Brendan Popp, interim director at the organization, told The Democrat that no other employee was involved, and that policies were being put into place to prevent future incidents of this nature.

Police were tipped off to Hart's actions after a tenant complained in August that his rent payments were not being applied to his account. The property supervisor, Ed Laurienzo, investigated the complaint and found there were multiple rent payment discrepancies and that Hart was keeping poor records of payments. She was eventually fired on Aug. 17, four days after the initial complaint.

An audit later found that a bank account where Hart was allegedly keeping the money. Most of the payments were money orders with the "pay to the order of" portion left blank, where Hart, according to the charges against her, would fill in her name.

You can read the full story in The Tallahassee Democrat.

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