The mother of all scams

[Monello]

The recent post about the rental property scam had me recalling when news of this scam became known. They pulled this off for almost 20 years. Talk about a licence to steal. I love how they got caught. Of course at sentencing they were all repentant.

Harriette Walters, a former mid-level manager in D.C.’s Office of Tax and Revenue, is currently serving a 17-year sentence for organizing the theft of nearly $50 million from the District’s treasury. D.C. Superior Court

For roughly 20 years, Walters used her position in OTR to create and process false and fraudulent real estate tax refund checks, converting those to cash or checks that were then deposited in bank accounts that she and her cohorts controlled.
The scam unraveled in 2007, after Bank of America — where D.C. maintained its property tax refund account — discovered one of its employees, assistant branch manager Walter Jones, was engaged in unauthorized and irregular deposits and withdrawals. Jones was fired, forcing Walters and her conspirators to shift to other financial institutions. When Walters’ niece, Jayrece Turnbull, attempted to deposit a $410,000 refund check at SunTrust, bank officials there immediately became suspicious and launched an investigation that was ultimately turned over to the FBI. (Jones was later sentenced to 78 months in prison; Turnbull wassentenced to nine years in prison).

By day, Harriette Walters and Diane Gustus worked at the District's Office of Tax and Revenue. In their free time, prosecutors said, they worked with others to raid the city's treasury to stock up on luxury items including fancy cars, homes, furs, precious jewelry, designer handbags and clothing. Walters alone spent more than $1.4 million at Neiman Marcus, according to charging papers.
A bank employee raised questions this summer, refusing to cash a $410,000 refund check and triggering a federal investigation. Raids yesterday, conducted by at least 100 law enforcement officials, turned up a $160,000 Bentley in the garage of Walters's brother Richard Walters and designer purses and shoes bearing the labels of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermes at Harriette Walters's home, law enforcement officials said. Authorities also found records tying Walters to the purchase of a $26,000 handbag, but the purse itself did not turn up.

show me the money