BOSTON (WHDH) - The former executive director of a non-profit homeless shelter with locations in Boston and Lawrence has been indicted on charges in connection with stealing nearly $1.5 million from the organization and lying under oath to conceal his self-dealing, Attorney General Maura Healey announced Thursday.
Manuel Duran, 69, of West Roxbury, was indicted Monday by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges including four counts of perjury, three county of larceny over $1,200, and two counts of making false entries in corporate books, according to Healey.
Headquartered in Jamaica Plain, Casa Nueva Vida houses over 150 families at 14 locations. While serving as the executive director of CNV, Duran essentially had complete control of the non-profit’s $7 million budget, directed procurement and site selections, and managed facility maintenance and staffing across all locations.
An investigation revealed that Duran allegedly used this power to lease four of his privately owned properties and one owned by a relative to CNV as shelter locations, hiding his interests in the transactions through use of limited liability companies, Healey said.
Duran is also accused of signing four annual disclosure forms under oath, attesting falsely that the organization, among other things, was not a party to any transaction in which any of its officers, directors, or trustees had a material financial interest.
Healey added that the investigation further revealed three different fraudulent financial schemes that Duran allegedly used to steal from CNV.
From 2014 to 2021, investigators say Duran skimmed rent money paid by CNV for a shelter site in Lawrence by using a shell company he set up as a middleman. Authorities also allege that Duran made inflated rent payments from CNV through the shell company to the owners of the property and siphoned off more than $1.1 million for his personal use.
Between 2012 and 2020, Duran also allegedly created fraudulent invoices and contracts to obtain checks made out to three different vendors for work they never performed. The named vendors would cash the checks with Duran present, and provide the cash directly to him. Duran allegedly stole $242,012 from CNV in these fraudulent vendor payments for purported services including renovations, lead abatement, and asbestos abatement.
Duran stole approximately $140,831 from CNV by depositing directly into his own business bank account paychecks issued to a seasonal maintenance employee for CNV who was in Puerto Rico when the paychecks were issued between 2014 and 2019, according to Healey.
Duran is slated to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 20.
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