LAS VEGAS, NV – On Tuesday, a former regional director of community development for the National Community Stabilization Trust, Sergio Barajas, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
The Trust was formed in 2008 in response to the national mortgage-housing foreclosure crisis.
According to court documents, Sergio Barajas, 54, of Chino Hills, California, worked for the Trust as a regional representative over the western United States. His duties included helping the Trust and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) non-profit organizations locate and buy foreclosed homes under a joint program between the Trust and HUD.
As part of the conspiracy:
• Heartland Coalition agreed to pay Barajas for his influence to help Heartland Coalition participate in the program. From 2011 to late 2012, Heartland Coalition paid Barajas a total of $186,025 and purchased 626 houses in California, Nevada, and Arizona.
• In 2011, Positive Housing Equations LLC agreed to pay Barajas for his influence to provide its affiliate company, Alliance Revitalization Communities (ARC), with access to houses available through the program. Between 2011 and 2014, ARC bought 167 houses, and Positive Housing Equations LLC paid Barajas a total of approximately $158,000.
• In 2013 and 2014, a real estate agent in Arizona agreed to pay Barajas for each house that her client bought through the Trust. The real estate agent paid Barajas a total of $36,711 to Barajas for at least 32 properties.
Barajas pleaded guilty in March 2021 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware II sentenced Barajas to three years of supervised release.