Taos County Commissioner Nicklos Jaramillo is denying that he knew his brother was a Section 8 landlord during the four years Jaramillo served on the Taos County Housing Authority Board.

Public records obtained by The Taos News show Armando Jaramillo received $18,000 in federal public housing funds while Nicklos Jaramillo sat on the Housing Authority board as a nonvoting member.

According to Patricia Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the situation could constitute a "conflict of interest."

She said penalties for such conflicts are determined on a "case-by-case" basis, and could include the repayment of the housing subsidy or excluding the offending landlord from the Section 8 program.

Detailed Housing Authority records for Armando Jaramillo were among more than 30 landlord and tenant files seized by agents with the FBI and the HUD Office of the Inspector General during a search last month.

The search was prompted by allegations that the Housing Authority's executive director, Carmella Martínez, had been embezzling Section 8 funds for more than a decade.

No arrests have yet been made in connection with the investigation.

The public records request yielded a payment schedule for Armando Jaramillo going back to January 2006.

Records show that Armando Jaramillo received $42,494.33 in Section 8 payments between January 2006 and December 2011.

His brother, Nicklos Jaramillo, was a nonvoting member of the Taos County Housing Authority from January 2006 until January 2010. Nicklos Jaramillo became a county commissioner in 2003.

Federal law specifically requires Section 8 landlords to receive a "conflict of interest" waiver if they are directly related to certain Housing Authority employees or board members. Campbell said HUD had not received a request for such a waiver for the Jaramillos.

Nicklos Jaramillo said Jan. 24 that he was not aware that his brother was a Section 8 landlord, though he said they were neighbors in Arroyo Hondo.

"I know that [Armando Jaramillo] has a little house there, but I don't know who he rents to," Nicklos Jaramillo said.

Nicklos Jaramillo insisted Housing Authority board members cannot influence which landlords are selected to participate in the Section 8 program. Nicklos Jaramillo said he took several HUD classes regarding Section 8 conflicts of interest, but he said he was not aware he needed to sign a conflict of interest waiver because he didn't know to whom his brother rented. He said it was Housing Authority staff's responsibility to identify cases requiring a waiver.

Nicklos Jaramillo's sister, Quirina Sánchez, is currently the Public Housing Manager for the Housing Authority. Campbell said there is no conflict of interest between Sánchez and Armando Jaramillo because Sánchez is not directly involved in the Section 8 program.

Sánchez was a longtime Town of Taos employee, but Taos County absorbed the Town of Taos' housing department in 2003. Public records provided to The Taos News show that Sánchez' daughter asked for a conflict of interest waiver in 2004. The request states that Sánchez and her husband had been renting to their own daughter through the Section 8 program for 10 years.

When Sánchez was being considered for a promotion to Section 8 coordinator in 2004, it raised the question of a conflict of interest. According to Campbell, HUD denied the waiver unless Sánchez declined the promotion or stopped participating as a Section 8 landlord.

Nicklos Jaramillo's nephew, Patrick Jaramillo, has also been employed at the housing authority since April 2005.

Last December, The Taos News submitted a public records request asking for a list of all landlords who receive Section 8 payments in Taos County.

The list provided by Taos County in response to that request includes several local elected officials, including Town of Taos Mayor Darren Córdova and state Rep. Roberto "Bobby" Gonzales.

According to HUD rules, a conflict of interest exists only in instances where a public official has direct oversight over, or influence on, the Section 8 program.