{"id":364475,"date":"2026-08-06T17:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364475\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T17:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:02:27","slug":"florida-woman-charged-with-pocketing-378000-after-defrauding-tallahassee-housing-authority-in-elaborate-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364475\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida woman charged with pocketing $378,000 after defrauding Tallahassee Housing Authority in elaborate scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a> Sean Pavone\/Shutterstock <\/p>\n

A member of the Tallahassee Housing Authority (THA), a public agency that helps low- and moderate-income residents afford housing, has been indicted for allegedly depositing almost $400,000<\/a> of funds meant to help pay for Floridians’ rent into her personal bank account. <\/p>\n

Lekishaann Huggins, 45, has been charged with 39 counts of bank fraud<\/a>, four counts of spending money laundering, two counts of filing a false tax return and one count of aggravated identity theft. <\/p>\n

Must Read <\/p>\n

Huggins was in charge of the THA’s housing choice voucher program, which was designed to help low-income residents<\/a> afford private housing by paying rent subsidies directly to landlords. <\/p>\n

As WCTV reports, Huggins would allegedly replace landlords’ bank information with her own. She also allegedly used former THA tenants’ information to file false claims for housing vouchers before directing those funds to her bank accounts. <\/p>\n

Huggins faces decades of prison time <\/p>\n

Huggins is facing up to 30 years of prison<\/a> for each of her 39 counts of bank fraud \u2014 up to 1,170 years in prison for those charges alone, although the average sentence for one offence is just 22 months. <\/p>\n

She racked up these charges over the course of two years from 2023 to 2025. An official statement from Dr. Tamara Berry-Andrews, Executive Director, said the THA had been working with law enforcement since 2024<\/a> in an official statement. <\/p>\n

“[The THA] has cooperated with federal authorities throughout this matter and appreciates the work of our law enforcement partners,” she said. <\/p>\n

Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe, who’s currently up for re-election, spoke out against Huggins’ alleged actions \u2014 and how long she was able to get away with it \u2014 in a Facebook post. Tallahassee is situated in Leon County. <\/p>\n

“This is exactly why I became a CPA and auditor,” he wrote<\/a>. “What jumps out isn’t the dollar amount \u2014 it’s that one employee allegedly could change a landlord’s payment information and approve it, with no one required to check their work. A basic two-person check could have easily prevented this.” <\/p>\n

Read More: Vanguard reveals what’s coming for U.S. stocks \u2014 and it could be bad news for this group of investors<\/a> <\/p>\n

Story continues <\/p>\n

It’s vital for any organization to institute two-person checks on financial processes like this to protect against fraud. When dealing with already underfunded programs, these necessary double checks sometimes fall through the cracks, but those oversights can have painful consequences for the people those organizations are supporting. <\/p>\n

THA also dealing with federal budget cuts <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the THA isn’t going to get more funding anytime soon. In December 2025, the organization had to delay housing choice voucher payments<\/a> thanks to funding shortfalls from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In her official statement, Dr. Berry-Andrews said this shortfall was not caused by Huggins. <\/p>\n

In 2026, the THA announced it wouldn’t be able to reissue some vouchers<\/a> currently being used when families left the program due to federal budget cuts. Of the 2,700 vouchers the THA is authorized to give, it said only 1,700 are currently issued \u2014 despite demonstrated need from the community. <\/p>\n

“They are waiting. It’s an issue, for sure, in terms of being able to adequately meet the needs of our local community, because there’s such great needs,” said Board of Commissioners Chair Christic Henry in an interview with WTXL<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The waiting list for the housing choice voucher program is currently closed<\/a>. According to O’Keefe’s statement, the waitlist has been closed since December 2020<\/a> except for a one-month period in 2024. <\/p>\n

Floridians who need that program to secure housing are the real victims in this. They’re the ones who feel the federal budget cuts the most, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars of rent they could have received if not for Huggins’ bank fraud. <\/p>\n

“It’s going to affect a lot of parents,” says Britney Chavers, a Floridian single mother who has used the program before, in an interview with WTXL<\/a>. “I’m going to have to work two jobs. That’s going to be time away from my son, my parenting. That’s going to affect him as well.” <\/p>\n

The Tallahassee Housing Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

What To Read Next <\/p>\n

Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise’s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: Florida woman charged with pocketing $378,000 after defrauding Tallahassee Housing Authority in elaborate scheme<\/a> <\/p>\n

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Pavone\/Shutterstock A member of the Tallahassee Housing Authority (THA), a public agency that helps low- and moderate-income…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[36845,104202,148137,8370,141879,142498,145996,14854,148136,232,234,233,148135],"class_list":["post-364475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-bank-account","tag-bank-fraud","tag-bank-information","tag-dave-ramsey","tag-housing-choice-voucher-program","tag-housing-vouchers","tag-lekishaann-huggins","tag-money-laundering","tag-official-statement","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}