Former Chicago Housing Authority Chief Sentenced For Fraud

Jet, Sept 17, 2001

Former Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) chief Vincent Lane was recently sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and three years of supervised release for lying to banks to get more than $2 million in loans.

Lane, 58, received national recognition for his innovations at the CHA and was once touted as a candidate for mayor and a finalist for federal housing secretary.

A federal jury in March convicted Lane on two counts of making false statements in connection with a $1.9 million refinancing of the Continental Plaza shopping center located in Chicago.

He also was found guilty of lying to Chicago's South Shore Bank to get three loans exceeding $600,000 in 1993 and 1994, when he was CHA chairman.

The charges, however, did not involve his public duties, but were connected to his work as a private developer.

Lane took the helm of the CHA in 1988 and was praised as a visionary for his police sweeps of gang-infested buildings and commitment to tenant management. But in 1995, Lane and other members of the CHA board resigned amid allegations of pervasive waste and fraud, and federal officials took over daily operations.