George Moses is now in custody, but what crimes was he found guilty of exactly?

On Tuesday, a federal jury found former Rochester Housing Authority Chairman George Moses guilty of 28 crimes.

Moses was first accused of crimes in 2018, and, as he continued to maintain his innocence, federal investigators and prosecutors unearthed more evidence of malfeasance and public corruption, and subsequently a grand jury indicted Moses five more times.

The bevy of criminal charges can sometimes be a jumble, especially with the multiple agencies and nonprofits which Moses cheated. At times, the federal trial, which began in early October, could seem like a mind-numbing litany of acronyms and abbreviations, such as NEAD (the North East Area Development neighborhood group Moses headed), or DASNY (the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York), or RHC, the Rochester Housing Charities, which is a subsidiary of the Rochester Housing Authority, or RHA.

Moses is now in custody, and is scheduled to have a bail hearing on Dec. 9 to see whether there are conditions which U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford determines could allow for his release. Such conditions often include bond of some amount, electronic monitoring, and a passport surrender.

It's too early to predict the likely sentence Moses faces under federal sentencing guidelines. Those guidelines take into account one's criminal history — Moses appears to have a clean criminal record — and the nature of the crimes and the losses. As well, evidence of obstruction, which prosecutors have contended happened in this case, can also add months or years to a sentence.

These questions — how much did Moses steal?; was there obstruction? — will be part of the legal terrain for Moses' sentencing. Prosecutors and defense lawyers will likely joust over the issues, and the decisions, which rest in the hands of Judge Wolford, will determine the ultimate penalty.

More: Former head of Rochester Housing Authority George Moses convicted on 28 counts of fraud

Moses' sentencing date has yet to be set, and will be discussed at his bail hearing. But, when the day comes, his litany of crimes will be the driving factor dictating how many years he will serve.

"He's now been convicted," Wolford said about her decision Tuesday to have Moses taken into custody. "He's facing significant penalties."

Here's a look at Moses crimes:

The NEAD expenses

Moses headed NEAD, and, it was revealed, used the nonprofit's money for an abundance of personal expenses, including a family cruise and a time share in Florida.

The cruise, by itself, amounted to two criminal fraud counts. This isn't uncommon; criminal statutes often allow for multiple charges for a single offense, with the misuse of the money itself and wire fraud for the transfer of the illicit funds. Money laundering charges can also be made, and they were with some of Moses' offenses.

As for the cruise, Moses spent nearly $3,500 of money from NEAD and an affiliate.

Similarly, the time share purchase was singled out as a crime. Moses contended that he had planned to start a NEAD-affiliated pizza franchise in Florida, but proof of the venture was scant.

Another criminal count bundled an assortment of other questionable Moses' NEAD expenses, including dental services for his family, purchases for his wife's multi-level marketing business, separate spa expenses from the cruise, tickets to a Knicks' game at Madison Square Gardens, and immigration assistance for Moses' Canadian girlfriend.

Moses' defense was able to mount a challenge to some of the highlighted expenses, but the jury only needed to find one of the expenses to be a fraudulent misuse of NEAD money to convict on the criminal count.

The McFadden conspiracies

One of the higher profile witnesses against Moses was former Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden, who will soon face his own sentencing for his own crimes against nonprofits.

McFadden previously headed an organization, Quad A for Kids, which provided after-school services for underprivileged children. McFadden has admitted that he created fake invoices for the organization, stealing more than $130,000 that otherwise could have been used for services for the youth.

Moses helped McFadden pilfer $8,000 from Quad A, allowing NEAD to claim it provided services that it didn't. NEAD sent the money to a company, Caesar Development, created by McFadden. Moses, on behalf of NEAD, kept $1,000, according to McFadden.

Moses, in his role with RHA, also illegally helped steer a no-bid contract to McFadden's company. McFadden has insisted that he did the work required under the contract, but he has also admitted to crimes associated with the contract.

McFadden's cooperation could lessen his sentence; he is now scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15. He now faces up to three years.

The DASNY rip-off

Another witness against Moses was former NEAD executive assistant Shirley Boone, who last year admitted to a conspiracy with Moses to defraud the state Dormitory Authority, or DASNY.

Boone testified that she falsified documents to secure a $45,000 reimbursement grant from DASNY Dormitory Authority for the NEAD office on Webster Avenue. In the documents, she claimed that roof repairs had been done by Freedom Community Enterprises, a for-profit NEAD subsidiary.

Freedom Community, however, does not do construction work and did no repairs for NEAD.

Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a sentence of eight to 14 months for Boone, but prosecutors could ask for a lesser sentence, including probation, based on her cooperation. She also is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15.

Former executive secretary crimes

Until months ago, it appeared that Moses would not be the only one going to trial for fraud. Janis White, a former executive secretary at RHA, also was facing charges, and appeared intent on taking her case to trial.

In June, however, White pleaded guilty to fraud, saying that she and Moses bilked taxpayers through fraudulent and inflated heating and air conditioning contracts. White, using a relative, established a company called HJJ Properties that purportedly was a heating and air conditioning business.

Rochester Housing Charities then contracted with HJJ for work actually done by legitimate business at RHC properties.

For instance, in 2018, RHC was defrauded into paying HJJ about $87,000 — about $28,000 of which was then routed to a legitimate company that had done the work. The overall loss to RHC of that conspiracy between White and Moses was close to $59,000.

White, who faces up to two years in prison, did not testify at the trial. In her plea, she did agree to cooperate against Moses. The fact that she did not testify doesn't mean that she didn't provide prosecutors with assistance.

She is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 24.

Moses' other crimes

Fraud crimes often go hand-in-hand with tax crimes, since the fraudster pockets income that he or she did not report.

The same holds true for Moses; five of the criminal counts were tax offenses. Why five? Because evidence showed that he stole money or services in 2015 through 2019, so he underreported his income on his taxes for five years.

Moses also was convicted of lying to the FBI about his crimes.

Also, Moses was convicted of a single criminal charge connected with a contractor, Francis Cardinell, who provided one of the trial's strangest moments.

Cardinell had alleged that Moses hired him for work, and he then paid kickbacks to Moses. The original indictment included 32 criminal counts, but then Cardinell admitted on the stand that he had fabricated the allegations against Moses.

Cardinell said he did so because he held Moses partly responsible for some of Cardinell's business troubles. Prosecutors then asked that three kickback charges connected with Cardinell be dropped, and Wolford dismissed the charges.

Moses' lawyers highlighted Cardinell's lies as evidence of government overreach with the case.

However, one Cardinell-connected charge remained. Prosecutors demonstrated that Moses and White fabricated invoices of $21,800 for Cardinell's company for work he performed for NEAD. The invoices instead made it appear the work was done for RHC, which then made the payments.

The jury on Tuesday did acquit Moses of a single charge, an allegation that he had RHC pay for laptops that were actually bought for NEAD.

Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com or at 585-258-2479. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Former RHA head George Moses has been found guilty, but of what exactly?