| For Immediate Release Case #11WF0173 November 30, 2011 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
MAN SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON FOR FAMILY SCHEME TO DEFRAUD OVER $140,000
IN PUBLIC ASSISTANCE BENEFITS
WESTMINSTER– A man was sentenced today to two years in state prison for his role in a family scheme to defraud multiple county agencies out of over $140,000 in public assistance benefits by lying and failing to report assets on aid applications. Hai Dien Luu, 49, Garden Grove, pleaded guilty to the court to one felony count of perjury, 11 felony counts of grand theft, and a sentencing enhancement for excessive taking over $100,000.
Luu’s ex-wife Hue Thi Chu, 37, Garden Grove, to whom he was married at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty Nov. 23, 2011, to a court offer to 15 felony counts of perjury, 11 felony counts of grand theft, and a sentencing enhancement for excessive taking over $100,000. She was sentenced to two years in state prison.
Chu’s niece, Lieu Thi Ha, 38, Westminster, pleaded guilty Nov. 23, 2011, to a court offer to 37 felony counts of perjury, 11 felony counts of grand theft, two felony counts of public assistance fraud, and a sentencing enhancement for excessive taking over $100,000. She was sentenced to two years and eight months in state prison.
All three defendants are collectively ordered to pay $140,000 in restitution.
Between June 2002 and February 2010, the defendants fraudulently applied for and received public assistance benefits by signing under penalty of perjury false income, asset, occupation, and homeowner information. The defendants fraudulently collected a total of over $140,000 in public assistance benefits by lying on aid applications for financial assistance with housing, cash, child care services, and food stamps through the Orange County Housing Authority (OCHA), Children’s Home Society of California (CHS), and Social Services Agency (SSA) of Orange County.
Between June 2002 and February 2010, Ha, a mother of two, fraudulently applied for and received over $88,000 in rental assistance through OCHA’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. To qualify, applicants must be from a low-income household and rent an apartment or house from a private landlord that is not a blood relative. Ha lied on applications by reporting less income to qualify under low-income program requirements, failed to report her familial relationship to the “landlords,” and falsely listed Chu and Luu as owners of her Westminster house.
Between February 2004 and December 2009, Ha fraudulently applied for public assistance through SSA and received over $44,000 in cash, food stamps, and child care services, for which she did not qualify. Ha lied on applications under penalty of perjury to qualify for these benefits by falsifying employment information, hiding ownership of a Los Angeles nail salon and Westminster home, and underreporting income including failing to disclose additional earnings received from tenants renting rooms in her house.