A former North Carolina state legislator and Winston-Salem City Council member was sentenced to five years of probation along with monetary penalties after pleading guilty to fraud for spending money from the homeless center organization he had led for personal use.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs on Thursday accepted the guilty plea by Derwin Montgomery, 34, contained in an agreement he signed last fall to one count of program fraud. Fourteen other counts from an indictment filed against him last year were dismissed.
Biggs ordered Montgomery to pay $38,618 in restitution to the Bethesda Center for the Homeless and $22,270 for his probationary supervision, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. He was also placed on home detention for 120 days.
Montgomery served as the center’s executive director for six years before he resigned in early 2021. The center had received at least $10,000 in federal assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2020, a court document shows.
Montgomery told Biggs in court that he was sorry for what happened.
A former state legislator from North Carolina and previous member of the Winston-Salem City Council has been sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution.
In 2020, Montgomery charged the center about $23,000 related to marketing and media services purportedly performed by his own company in contravention of conflict of interest policy, and despite the center already receiving such services as a charitable donation, the document said.
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The indictment had alleged Montgomery charged the shelter for airfare to Cancun, Mexico, for a vacation with a romantic partner, stays at luxury hotels, and expenses at a strip club in Las Vegas.