Sean P. Madigan and Victoria Madigan, both 35 and residents of Cheyenne, Wyoming, have been sentenced to five years of supervised probation for making false statements and committing wire fraud. Sean Madigan received his sentence on June 6, with the court ordering him to pay $161,175 in restitution to the State of Wyoming. He was also ordered to pay $12,864 in restitution, jointly with Victoria Madigan, to the Cheyenne Housing Authority. Victoria Madigan was sentenced on September 10 and ordered to pay the same amount jointly with her husband.
Court documents indicate that the couple lived in Cheyenne with their three children and operated a coffee shop at the Cheyenne Frontier Mall while receiving housing assistance through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. They did not disclose income from their business when certifying eligibility for housing assistance and used one bank account for both household and business finances. Although false statements were made to the Cheyenne Housing Authority rather than directly to a federal agency, these actions still fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
After COVID-19 relief programs were introduced to support businesses affected by pandemic restrictions, Sean Madigan used their coffee shop business as a means to fraudulently obtain relief funds. Instead of using all COVID-19 business relief funds for business purposes as required by state grant programs, a significant portion was spent on household 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 HUD’s 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.”
The investigation was conducted by HUD and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christyne Martens under case numbers CR-25-00030 and CR-25-00039.
