Former HUD Official Faces More Charges
A former Ronald Reagan Administration official under indictment in the HUD influence-peddling scandal was charged Friday with lying to Congress and accepting a $100,000 loan from a developer whom he helped get federal housing subsidies.
Special prosecutors investigating influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Reagan Administration obtained a new indictment against Thomas T. Demery, a former assistant housing secretary.
Demery had been scheduled to go to trial next month on charges of illegally steering HUD subsidies to a developer represented by a broker who had purchased Demery’s business before he went into government. The new 19-count indictment against Demery incorporates and modifies the five old charges, which were made in June by a federal grand jury.
In a statement, Demery’s lawyer, John P. Hume, accused the office of independent counsel Arlin Adams of obtaining the new indictment “to conceal the deficiencies in its initial prosecution.”
The latest indictment accuses Demery of steering $15 million worth of HUD loan subsidies to a Michigan developer, who in turn gave Demery a $100,000 second mortgage on his home.
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