A 49-year-old Haverhill man this week was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release for taking $73,000 intended to help prevent veteran suicides.
As WHAV previously reported, David Duren pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud. Duren, also known as Dawud Hakiem Duren, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph N. Laplante.
According to U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young’s office, Duren was a program manager for a Nashua, N.H. nonprofit health care provider, overseeing a program paid by a $750,000 Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Grant. At Duren’s recommendation, the nonprofit hired a company called “E3 Foundation,” purportedly led by a “Dr. Michael Rapp,” to provide services with the grant. Instead, Feds allege Duren controlled the foundation and posed as a physician on emails and calls. He was able to obtain almost $50,000 and tried to obtain an additional $25,000 before being discovered. Officials charge that Duren misused the Staff Sergeant Fox program money on personal purchases, including landscaping, a Royal Caribbean cruise and payments to models on OnlyFans.com.
Approximately a decade ago, Duren was convicted of stealing more than $143,000 from the U.S. Department of Defense.
“The defendant is a recidivist fraudster who used a sophisticated scheme to steal money intended to help vulnerable veterans,” said Young. “His brazen criminal conduct was compounded by the fact that he stole from a program dedicated to preventing veteran suicides. Today’s sentence should be a warning to others that stealing from veterans will not be tolerated and will result in incarceration.”
According to the prosecution, Duren took steps to conceal the fraud by emailing the charity a document containing notes of a “meeting” between himself and Dr. Rapp dated July 28, 2023, but the metadata proved he created the document a month after that date. Duren also provided a phone number for Dr. Rapp, who replied via email that he was on vacation in Europe. Shortly after, Duren created a voicemail for Dr. Rapp he titled “Rapp vacation.” And, when law enforcement interviewed Duren, he claimed that the stolen money used to pay for his home’s landscaping was justified because he was using the money to “create a space that was conducive” to hosting veterans.