Federal courts hand down injunction and indictments

ALBANY — Three Thomaston residents face a 30-count indictment from a Macon grand jury for stealing from an organization receiving federal funds, a U.S. Attorney’s Office report stated.

Sherry Darlene McDaniel, 43, Lance McDaniel, 57, and Wayne Williams, 49, were indicted after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Sherry McDaniel, the executive director of HUD in Thomaston, made contracts with a company that was acutually a front for her husband as a way to steal government money, the report stated. She is also charged with embezzling and using a HUD Visa card for her own use, it added.

Another U.S. Attorney’s Office report stated that the U.S. District Court in Albany permanently barred Cecil A. Collier, of Cairo, from preparing federal tax returns for others.

According to the report, Collier, operating as Cairo Fast Tax, “employed at least two schemes to generate false or overstated claims for earned income credits and correspondingly excessive tax returns.”

The report added that “Collier’s tax preparation may have caused government losses exceeding $12 million.” The court also ordered Collier to turn over a list of his clients and to mail a copy of the order to all his clients since Jan. 1, 2007.