Amarillo woman sentenced for embezzling from homeless program

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - A former City of Amarillo employee was sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling $465,000 meant to provide shelter to homeless people.

According to the U.S. Attorney‘s Office for the Northern District of Texas, 44-year-old Amy Dixon, the City of Amarillo’s former Homeless Management Information Specialist, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to embezzle from a federally funded program.

Dixon was responsible for distributing money to local landlords through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Emergency Solutions Grant Program.

Her role involved communicating with Amarillo property owners who were willing to lease their properties through the Emergency Solutions Grant Program, assisting in completing lease agreements, coordinating inspections of the properties and assembling payment vouchers.

According to plea papers, Dixon used a relative‘s personal information to create a fake landlord in Sept. 2020. She then created fake payment vouchers to the fake landlord under her relative’s name.

Dixon would instruct Amarillo‘s Finance Department to call her when the payment vouchers were ready. She would then sign the relative’s name and deposit the checks into her personal bank account.

In April 2021, HUD announced that it was accept inspections completed by outside companies. Dixon then began to process payments for fake properties.

Dixon created 223 fraudulent payment vouchers resulting in 66 checks written to fake landlords. The total loss of funds totaled $465,511.65.

Dixon was sentenced to two years in prison on Oct. 22 and ordered to pay $465,511.65 in restitution.