Cheyenne couple sentenced in fraud case

Sean P. Madigan, 35, and Victoria Madigan, 35, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, were both sentenced to five years of supervised probation for crimes related to making false statements and wire fraud. Sean was sentenced on June 6 and the court ordered him to pay $161,175 in restitution to the State of Wyoming. Sean was also ordered to pay $12,864 in restitution, joint and several with his co-defendant Victoria, to the Cheyenne Housing Authority. Victoria was sentenced on September 10 and the court also ordered her to pay $12,864, to be paid joint and several with Sean, to the Cheyenne Housing Authority.

According to court documents, Sean and Victoria Madigan were a married couple with three children living in Cheyenne. The couple received housing assistance through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program while also running a coffee shop in the Cheyenne Frontier Mall. They used the same bank account for the financial needs of the coffee shop and their household, but they did not disclose the income from their business to the Cheyenne Housing Authority when certifying their eligibility for housing assistance. While a false statement to the Cheyenne Housing Authority is not a statement made directly to a federal agency or department, it is still a matter within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

After various governmental assistance programs became available to help keep businesses from failing due to Covid-19 related restrictions, Sean used the coffee shop to facilitate fraudulently receiving Covid-19 relief funds. Rather than spend Covid-19 business relief funds solely for business purposes as required by the State of Wyoming grant programs, the Madigans spent a material portion of the money on household daily living expenses.

"Some argue that white collar crime is a victimless crime, but that could not be further from the truth. We all end up paying when someone defrauds the government-the Madigan's actions are an outright theft from American taxpayers," said U.S Attorney Darin Smith. We are grateful for HUD's extensive investigation which exposed the calculated efforts of this couple to exploit government programs."

"The defendants allegedly engaged in a complex, multi-agency fraud scheme that diverted over $300,000 in critical taxpayer dollars intended to support struggling businesses during an unprecedented pandemic, while also receiving HUD housing assistance through a program that was intended for low income families " said Special Agent-in-Charge Machelle Jindra with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG). "HUD OIG remains steadfast in its commitment to working with our prosecutorial partners to aggressively pursue those who engage in activities that threaten the integrity of HUD programs."

HUD investigated the crime and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christyne Martens prosecuted the crime. Case No. CR-25-00030 and CR-25-00039