KAMC Investigates: Apartment Employee Says He Witnessed Crimes
By: Nick Ochsner
Updated: November 21, 2012
A former employee at the Garden Apartments is speaking out against his old bosses in an exclusive interview with KAMC Investigates.
The employee asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation.
According to the former employee, his manager at the complex submitted fraudulent documents to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, falsified rental information for tenants who received utility assistance checks long after they stopped living at the complex, and failed to keep residents' personal information confidential.
"They kept on stacking paperwork on top of paperwork and when they started getting caught up in it, they started having tenants come in and bring their proper paperwork," he said. "Then they started to change the files out to see what was going on."
Our first investigation back in September caught management submitting federal housing vouchers using the identity, Social Security numbers and drivers license information of current tenants.
"I don't think that's right," the former employee said. "I wouldn't want that happening to me."
The former employee also showed us video of an apartment resident working inside the manager's office, calling out Social Security numbers for anyone to hear.
A spokesman for HUD told us there isn't any specific law prohibiting from residents from working in their apartment's office, but he said personal identifying information--like Social Security numbers and birth certificates--should be kept confidential.
The former employee we spoke with told us when he raised his concerns with management at Capstone Real Estate Services--the company that manages the apartment complex--his concerns were swept under the rug at first.
As time went on and he continued to raise complaints, he said, his managers eventually found an excuse to fire him.
"You know, I wasn't gonna keep my mouth shut," he said. "It's not fair: it's not fair to me, not fair to you, not fair to the tenants."
The employee asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation.
According to the former employee, his manager at the complex submitted fraudulent documents to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, falsified rental information for tenants who received utility assistance checks long after they stopped living at the complex, and failed to keep residents' personal information confidential.
"They kept on stacking paperwork on top of paperwork and when they started getting caught up in it, they started having tenants come in and bring their proper paperwork," he said. "Then they started to change the files out to see what was going on."
Our first investigation back in September caught management submitting federal housing vouchers using the identity, Social Security numbers and drivers license information of current tenants.
"I don't think that's right," the former employee said. "I wouldn't want that happening to me."
The former employee also showed us video of an apartment resident working inside the manager's office, calling out Social Security numbers for anyone to hear.
A spokesman for HUD told us there isn't any specific law prohibiting from residents from working in their apartment's office, but he said personal identifying information--like Social Security numbers and birth certificates--should be kept confidential.
The former employee we spoke with told us when he raised his concerns with management at Capstone Real Estate Services--the company that manages the apartment complex--his concerns were swept under the rug at first.
As time went on and he continued to raise complaints, he said, his managers eventually found an excuse to fire him.
"You know, I wasn't gonna keep my mouth shut," he said. "It's not fair: it's not fair to me, not fair to you, not fair to the tenants."
