{"id":445448,"date":"2026-11-02T21:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445448\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T21:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:18:28","slug":"local-woman-pleads-guilty-to-defrauding-tallahassee-housing-authority-out-of-378k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/445448\/","title":{"rendered":"Local woman pleads guilty to defrauding Tallahassee Housing Authority out of $378K"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee woman pleaded guilty to defrauding the Tallahassee Housing Authority, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lekishaann Huggins, 45, pleaded guilty to 39 counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and four counts of spending money laundering. She was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/07\/30\/court-records-local-woman-federally-indicted-378k-tallahassee-housing-authority-fraud-scheme\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/07\/30\/court-records-local-woman-federally-indicted-378k-tallahassee-housing-authority-fraud-scheme\/\">indicted on those charges in July.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In 2023 and 2024, Huggins was employed as a manager for THA\u2019s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which provides low-income families with housing assistance and federally subsidized housing, according to court documents. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">An investigation revealed Huggins embezzled 40 payments totaling around $378,927. Huggins used the names and profiles of 16 former THA tenants and falsely charged non-existent rent payments to a company she owned, court documents show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">More on crime in our area: <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The investigation also found Huggins filed false tax returns in 2023 and 2024. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In January 2025, THA notified law enforcement of suspicious entries into its tracking system. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As part of her guilty plea, Huggins agreed to forfeit jewelry, clothes and accessories that were taken in the investigation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Huggins faces up to 30 years in prison for each of the bank fraud counts, two years for aggravated identity theft and up to ten years for each money laundering count. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sentencing is schedule for January 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/11\/02\/local-woman-pleads-guilty-defrauding-tallahassee-housing-authority-out-378k\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee woman pleaded guilty to defrauding the Tallahassee Housing Authority, according to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[265,173386,232,35110,234,20265,233,173385,148135,173384,173383,2425],"class_list":["post-445448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-crime","tag-housing-choice-voucher-program-fraud","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-crime","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-housing-authority","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tallahassee-woman-housing-authority-fraud","tag-tha","tag-tha-employee-fraud","tag-tha-fraud","tag-theft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445448","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=445448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}