The company admits to improperly applying for rental assistance through a CARES Act program in October and November 2020. The program was federally funded and administered by Montgomery County, which delegated the program to Miami Valley Community Action Partnership.
The plea agreement says the company sought funds for at least seven properties, including some that were not lived in or where the amount paid out was “well in excess of what would be needed to cover any actual monthly rent.”
A 2021 Dayton Daily News investigation found Eagle Renovations was one of several landlords paid through the program in apparent violation of program rules. A reporter visited multiple properties where landlords applied for and received rental assistance and found some empty and in some cases condemned and unlivable.
Eagle Renovations owner Myron Lewis told the Dayton Daily News the company would pay back the money.
“The person we had working (on the applications), we didn’t know exactly what they were doing. I didn’t know. And now that we found out exactly what it was all about, we don’t feel comfortable having the money and we’re just going to take it and give it all back to them,” he said at the time.
An attorney for the company did not return a call for comment about the plea agreement.
Eagle Renovations received about $70,875 from MVCAP through the program and paid back roughly $40,000, according to the plea agreement. The company agrees, among other things, to pay restitution.
This is the second federal criminal case following Dayton Daily News investigations into the rental assistance program. Landlord Antoine Draines was sentenced in July 2023 to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
A Dayton Daily News investigation revealed that Draines ― through his company, Freedom for Living Property Management — collected rent assistance payments on behalf of tenants without their knowledge, including some whose rent was covered by public assistance programs such as Section 8.
Staff Writer Sydney Dawes contributed to this report.
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