Harriette Walters was living the good life – but it was on the dime of the taxpayers. Literally.
Walters was the tax assessment manager for the District of Columbia. So she “worked” for the government. Only she didn’t really work. Instead, she recruited 10 other people in what is being called the “largest fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a District of Columbia government official.” The scheme, involving improper tax refunds, allegedly netted Walters and her cronies friends nearly $50 million.
The scheme started nearly 18 years ago when Walters was a 25-year-old low-level government employee. Now, 52 years old, she has taken a plea agreement to stealing millions of dollars out of the coffers of the DC tax office. She stole more than $8 million in one year alone.
How did she do it? She watched and learned about what happens in government. In the early 1980s, she saw that other DC tax office employees received gifts and cash if they waived interest or penalties on property tax bills of large institutions. A fellow employee taught Walters how to remove interest and penalties in exchange for “perks” from taxpayers. She then moved on to creating fraudulent tax refund checks for her friends and “co-workers” in the scheme. Over the next 18 years, Walters issued at least 236 fraudulent refund checks. Her reward? Not only did she pocket the money, but she also became a manager in the office.
In 2000, Walters grew bolder and enlisted Bank of America branch manager Walter Jones to assist her in cashing the bogus checks. Walters was eventually found out when Jones was fired in 2007 for gross inconsistencies in his accountings. The FBI was eventually alerted when Walters continued the scheme in Jones’ absence.
All of the defendants in the case have pleaded guilty; all have been sentenced except Walters. Walters faces up 18 years in prison for her actions.
One of the friends that she enlisted in the plan, admitted compulsive gambler Connie Alexander, was sentenced yesterday to almost four years in prison, commensurate with the sentencing guidelines which called for a sentence of 46 to 57 months.
As part of her plea agreement, Alexander agreed to make restitution of more than $3.1 million. She will also give up a 2000 Mercedes-Benz automobile, a 2002 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a 2003 Cadillac Escalade sport-utility vehicle, three projection televisions, designer handbags, 62 pieces of jewelry and eight fur coats.
What’s striking about the case isn’t that a low-level employee was able to steal – but that the amounts which were stolen were so enormous over such a long period of time. It makes you wonder what else is going on in that office. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wondered the same thing: “It strikes me as amazing that this criminal activity can go undetected for 20 years and nobody knew she was stealing,” he said. “There were no checks and balances?”
Apparently not.
So wow. Just wow. I have no doubt, as prosecutors fear, that there is more of this kind of behavior in DC. And Philly. And New York. Anywhere that there is a sense of entitlement, a sense of power play, a sense of “I can get away with this because no one is looking.” My question is why isn’t anyone looking? It’s our money.
This is only going to get worse. As the moral fabric of our society continues to erode, people are going to continue to lose their sense of right and wrong, and like you say, will almost feel entitled to it or justify it in some way. And the even sadder result is that witwill require even more governement intervention and laws to try to curb this behavior. Good news for auditors, but bad news for tax payers. Come on parents, wake up and start teaching your children that stealing, cheating and lying are ALWAYS wrong!! period.
The answer to your question is this: the mentality of the government and its employees is that the money they receive is the government’s money and the employees believe they are taking the governments money and not the peoples money. When the entity “government” is seen as the provider of the money, it is much easier to rationalize the theft since no single individual was harmed directly, the crime has no specific victim to report it. The fact that is went on for so long indicates what everyone already knows , that there is a culture of corruption in our government.
The only way to limit these frauds is to limit the money going to Washington. There will never be a perfect system but the more we send to Washington, the more will be lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.
Does “up to 18 years” seem too lenient to anybody else?