A former employee of a Merrillville-based not-for-profit service agency was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday morning after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in February.

United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon sentenced Valencia Franklin of Lynwood, Illinois, to 24 months in prison followed by a year of supervised release in the U.S. District Court Northern Indiana in Hammond. Franklin, 52, was also ordered to pay $352,300 in restitution to Geminus Corporation, her former employer.

Franklin was accused of misappropriating $636,000 in Emergency Rental Assistance funds destined to help renters hang on to their residences during the pandemic by creating false landlords to fraudulently request money from the program, according to an independent audit by an Indiana

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