Kansas City Business Journal
May 21, 2009
A director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Kansas City, Kan., has been brought up on federal charges of misusing public money.
Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they have charged Herman Ransom, 52, of Olathe, with receiving pay for hours he did not work.
Ransom is under indictment for 10 counts of wire fraud and 10 counts of theft of public money.
Ransom still holds his position with HUD but is on administrative leave, according to a spokesman in HUD’s Washington office.
The indictment said Ransom claimed to have worked 80 hours during two-week pay period reports, though those periods included personal time off.
Also, prosecutors accuse Ransom of playing tennis and going to casinos while he claimed to have been working.
Altogether, federal prosecutors think Ransom has received $47,000 in unmerited pay since starting as a director in 1998 as the HUD office in Kansas City, Kan., where he supervised 89 employees.
A conviction could mean 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each wire fraud count, as well as 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each count of theft of public money.
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