A Glenburn woman was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to five years in prison for embezzlement and was ordered to pay back roughly $1 million.
According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, Kelly Ballinger was the property manager at a Portland apartment complex with units funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. From roughly 2015 to 2021, prosecutors said, she stole rent payments made by tenants in the department’s voucher program.
Ballinger told tenants to pay their rent with a blank postal money order, and then would place her name, or her employees’ name, as the payee, adding descriptions to suggest the payments were reimbursements. In some cases, she would deflate a tenants’ income to $0, so the department would pay a larger share of the rent.
Judge John Woodcock described Ballinger’s activities as “calculated, deliberate and devious.”
Ballinger pleaded guilty to the charges last year. Her employee, Kathleen Conway, pleaded guilty to embezzlement and was sentenced last year to two years of probation and more than $35,000 in restitution.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
