Thomas T. Demery (born 18 July 1949 in

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) is a former Assistant Secretary of the

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Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He served during the

Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

administration. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to and was convicted of accepting a gratuity and

obstruction of justice Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...

during his tenure in government.

Business career

Between 1972 and 1978, Thomas Demery was

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of Bloomfield Management Co., a residents' property management company. After 1978, he worked as a licensed residential builder, real-estate broker, and mortgage correspondent. During the period 1982–1986, Demery served as a consultant to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for technical analyses and reviews of selected HUD multifamily mortgages.

Career in government

On August 11, 1986, during his second term in office, then-

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Ronald Reagan, after the resignation of Maurice Lee Barksdale from that position, announced his intention to nominate Demery to be the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.). At the time, Demery was the president of Income Property Services, Inc., a real estate brokerage firm in

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Loan scandal

On 17 June 1993, Thomas Demery, after being

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...

on charges of lying to Congress and accepting a $100,000 loan from a Michigan developer whom he'd helped to get federal housing subsidies in the 1980s,

pleaded guilty In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...

to accepting a gratuity from that developer, and of obstructing justice. Demery was accused of steering $15 million worth of H.U.D. loan subsidies to the developer who had given him a $100,000 second mortgage on "extremely favorable terms" that was "never publicly recorded," as the indictment stated. Demery received a $50 fine on each count and was subject to a 2-year

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

period.

Donations in exchange of HUD grants

In 1989, the

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reported that a charity which Demery had founded, "Food for Africa," had received over $290,000 in donations from developers and consultants who were connected with HUD projects. The newspaper suggested these donations had been made in return for federal subsidies. A subsequent report issued by the department concluded that there was no direct link between the donations and the federal subsidies. The report led to a wider congressional investigation into alleged grant rigging in the

Ronald Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...

Personal life

Demery comes from a family of

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immigrants. He has two children from his 1971 marriage. He is a devout Christian and has been a

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at the Bloomfield Hills Christian Church.

References

Further information

*Government Operations Subcommittee on Employment and Housing
1989 investigation on abuse and favoritism by HUDMay 1990 HUD investigationJune 1990 HUD investigation
from C-Span {{DEFAULTSORT:Demery, Thomas 1949 births Living people United States Assistant Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development Reagan administration controversies Michigan Republicans