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Jacklyn Sutcivni, age 48, of the Middlesex County town of Dracut, was sentenced to 40 months in prison and three years of supervised release for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and false claims, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on Monday, March 28.
She was convicted of the charges on Aug. 4.
Sutcivni was an employee of the City of Worcester’s Housing Development Office and Executive Office of Economic Development, and from July 2010 to September 2011, she used her position to approve seven fraudulent Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funding requests from Natick real estate developer James Levin, according to the announcement.
The grants were for work Levin falsely said he completed on a building, and Sutcivni approved the requests knowing they were fraudulent, the US Attorney's Office reported.
The City of Worcester issued about $2,365,050 in federal funds to Levin, the report said.
After the city paid the funds, Sutcivni or other city officials requested reimbursements from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the US Attorney's Office said.
“This fraud is not a victimless crime – the Worcester community and its families deserve and are entitled to city employees that do their jobs with integrity,” US Attorney Rachael Rollins said. “Jacklyn Sutcivni repeatedly chose to dishonor her public office and the good people of Worcester who placed their trust in her. Today’s sentence reinforces our steady resolve to investigate public officials who abuse their positions and hold them accountable for breaching the public’s trust.”
Levin pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme in September 2020 and was sentenced to 37 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a forfeiture of $1,955,000, according to the report.
Sutcivni was ordered to pay restitution, and the amount will be determined at a hearing on Thursday, May 19, the US Attorney's Office reported.
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