Philadelphia Housing Authority worker charged with stealing rent money

An official who handled rent money from residents of Philadelphia Housing Authority homes allegedly used her position to steal about $8,000 over two years, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Sondra Wong Nelson, 36, of Philadelphia, allegedly stole the rent money between June 2010 and January 2012 in her capacity as a supervisory asset manager for PHA.

The alleged scam was pretty simple, the U.S. Attorney said. When a tenant would bring in their rent money in the form of a money order, Nelson allegedly wrote her name in the field where PHA should have been. She then deposited the money orders into her personal bank account, according to prosecutors.

"It is further alleged that as part of her corrupt scheme, defendant Nelson accessed PHA's internal computer database and manipulated the database to falsely reflect that the embezzled rent payments had been received by PHA, even though she knew that she had deposited those funds in her personal bank account," the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement.

If convicted, Nelson faces up to 20 years in jail and up to $750,000 in fines.