NATION : ‘Robin HUD’ Indicted in Theft of $5.5 Million From Housing Dept.

A Maryland woman who said she stole $5.5 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to give to the poor was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Baltimore.

Marilyn Louise Harrell, who has been dubbed “Robin HUD,” was charged with theft of government property, making false statements to the federal government, making false statements in connection with a loan application and aiding and abetting, said the U.S. District Court clerk in Baltimore.

Prosecutors began presenting evidence to the grand jury not long after Harrell testified to Congress last June that she withheld the $5.5 million from HUD while handling the sale of government-owned property and used some of it to assist charities and the homeless.

Harrell’s testimony to Congress was among the most dramatic during six months of hearings into allegations of fraud, mismanagement and political favoritism at HUD during the Reagan Administration.

“I in no way justify what I have done as being anything less than sin,” she told a House subcommittee in June. “I do, regardless of where my life takes me from here, intend to repay in full all monies taken.”