Chester Housing Authority
Outcome
Former Chester Housing Authority Director of Public Housing Norman Wise was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and $544,967 in restitution, and his deputy Douglas Daniel was sentenced to 13 months and $578,967 in restitution, for steering nearly $545,000 in contracts to a company they secretly co-owned and accepting $42,000 in kickbacks from a separate contractor.
Details
Chester Housing Authority — Director Bribery and Self-Dealing Fraud (2019–2023)
Outcome: Norman D. Wise, former Director of Public Housing for the Chester Housing Authority, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and $544,967 in restitution for steering nearly $545,000 in fraudulent contracts to his secretly owned company and accepting $42,000 in kickbacks from a separate contractor. His deputy, Douglas E. Daniel, received 13 months in prison and $578,967 in restitution.
From January 2019 to January 2023, Wise and Daniel ran two overlapping fraud schemes at the Chester Housing Authority (CHA). In the first scheme, they steered work worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trinity Management Group, a company in which both held a secret financial stake. They billed the CHA for work supposedly performed by Trinity Management Group; however, most of the contracted work was actually performed by salaried CHA employees during their regular work hours, or by other contractors — not by Trinity.
In the second scheme, Wise accepted more than $42,000 in kickbacks from contractor Lester Coleman in exchange for steering CHA contracts worth $2.5 million to Coleman's company. This created a dual fraud structure: self-dealing through a secretly owned company alongside direct bribery from third-party contractors.
Both officials pleaded guilty in September 2023. Wise was sentenced to 37 months in May 2024. Daniel was sentenced to 13 months with restitution of $578,967. Contractor Coleman was separately charged and sentenced for his role in the kickback scheme.
Primary Source: Former Chester Housing Authority Director of Public Housing, His Chief Assistant, and Contractor Sentenced for Bribery and Fraud Schemes
How Crucible Prevents This
The Chester scheme was only possible because two officials could collectively steer contracts to their own secretly owned company. Crucible's beneficial ownership verification hook for all vendors receiving housing authority contracts would have surfaced Wise and Daniel's ownership interest in Trinity Management Group before the first contract award. A kickback-risk monitor flagging unusual payment concentration to single contractors alongside undisclosed executive relationships would have caught both the self-dealing and the Coleman kickback scheme.
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