Ex-Luna Pier official ordered to repay HUD
10/11/2012DETROIT — The former executive director of the Luna Pier Housing Commission has been sentenced to five months on electronic monitoring for embezzling $32,000 in federal money and using the funds to pay personal expenses.
Kay Jean Axel is serving the sentence under house arrest under orders issued Sept. 27 in U.S. District Court in Detroit by Judge Julian Abele Cook. Axel will undergo an additional three years of supervised release when the sentence is complete and has been told to make restitution for the theft.
Axel was fired in January, 2010, as executive director of the city commission that oversees housing complexes for senior citizens and low-income families. She pleaded guilty in December to theft of government funds filed by federal prosecutors about a year after her termination.
According to documents, she used credit cards to pay for personal items from 2007 to 2010 and then took federal Department of Housing and Urban Development funds to pay for the charges.