A former caseworker at an East Bay nonprofit organization has been sentenced in U.S. District Court to one year in prison for stealing $26,300 in federal funds intended to aid homeless veterans with short-term housing.
William Andrews, 50, of Windsor, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco on Aug. 21. Donato also ordered him to pay the government $26,300 in restitution.
Andrews pleaded guilty before Donato on April 25 to one count of theft of U.S. government property and acknowledged stealing a total of $26,300 in 2016.
Andrews formerly worked with the Oakland-based East Bay Community Recovery Project, which provides substance abuse treatment and services. Its services included helping homeless veterans obtain grants from the U.S.Department of Veteran Affairs for short-term rental housing.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing document that Andrews used stolen identities of homeless veterans to funnel grants in their names to his own landlord to pay his own rent.
According to the prosecution document, Andrews used the identities of two veterans for a period of months. The nonprofit group discovered the fraud during an audit when Andrews tried to use the identity of a third homeless veteran.
As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors dropped a second charge of aggravated identity theft, which would have carried a mandatory two-year sentence upon conviction.
Andrews is due to begin serving his sentence on Nov. 16.
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