Former ACHA employee Mathta Franklin also agreed to pay $30,000 to settle claims the agency made against her under the act. Franklin served for years as the agency’s finance director under Wilson, and then briefly as executive director after Wilson retired.

Franklin has paid in full. Wilson has yet to make any payments, according to an agency spokesman. The Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act does not provide any direct recourse for agencies to collect fines from individuals who do not pay. Rather, it requires the U.S. Department of Justice to take action in order to collect debts owed.

The agency has indicated its legal counsel is working with DOJ on next steps, though no new information was available Monday. If the bill becomes law, any money collected from Wilson or others upon its passage would go to HUD rather than the U.S. Treasury’s general fund.

“We’ve seen in Cairo, Illinois, the damage caused when federal housing dollars are misused. This bill is about basic fairness and justice," Durbin said. "It ensures that when financial penalties are collected, that the money returns to residents and communities that were robbed blind. No community should ever go through what we saw in Cairo."

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