Local
Former D.C. tax office employee gets 15 months in $180K scheme
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
November 18, 2008
A former D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue employee was sentenced to 15 months in prison in a scheme to embezzle more than $180,000 from the city.
The inside job was uncovered while authorities were investigating a $50 million tax fraud scheme that was run by a separate group out of the same office. The crimes are not connected, police said.
Jacqueline Cecilia Wright, 41, of Washington, had admitted in court to using her position as a revenue officer to generate six fraudulent income tax returns for her boyfriend, Michael M. Clark.
The scheme began in 2006. After a fraudulent income tax return check was mailed to Clark, and deposited into his account, Wright altered computer records to make it appear as though the check had not been received and repeated the process by generating a new fraudulent income tax return.
In all, Clark received about $184,000 in illicit refunds, prosecutors said. He allegedly gave Wright at least $85,000 and the couple spent more than $100,000 on home improvement projects, prosecutors said.
Last month, Clark, 32, of District Heights, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to six months in a halfway house and four years probation.
Wright and Clark were also required to pay back the $184,000.
Wright’s scheme was uncovered earlier this year as the finance office already was stunned by revelations that longtime tax manager Harriette Walters had conspired with at least 10 others to swindle $50 million from the city coffers, the largest public corruption scandal in the District of Columbia’s history.
Despite the intense and highly publicized investigations into the tax office in March, Wright filed another fake tax return that month seeking a refund of $41,000. The District never sent out that payment because the city’s new safeguards detected the scheme, prosecutors said.
All 11 defendants in the Walters case have pleaded guilty.
The inside job was uncovered while authorities were investigating a $50 million tax fraud scheme that was run by a separate group out of the same office. The crimes are not connected, police said.
Jacqueline Cecilia Wright, 41, of Washington, had admitted in court to using her position as a revenue officer to generate six fraudulent income tax returns for her boyfriend, Michael M. Clark.
The scheme began in 2006. After a fraudulent income tax return check was mailed to Clark, and deposited into his account, Wright altered computer records to make it appear as though the check had not been received and repeated the process by generating a new fraudulent income tax return.
In all, Clark received about $184,000 in illicit refunds, prosecutors said. He allegedly gave Wright at least $85,000 and the couple spent more than $100,000 on home improvement projects, prosecutors said.
Last month, Clark, 32, of District Heights, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to six months in a halfway house and four years probation.
Wright and Clark were also required to pay back the $184,000.
Wright’s scheme was uncovered earlier this year as the finance office already was stunned by revelations that longtime tax manager Harriette Walters had conspired with at least 10 others to swindle $50 million from the city coffers, the largest public corruption scandal in the District of Columbia’s history.
Despite the intense and highly publicized investigations into the tax office in March, Wright filed another fake tax return that month seeking a refund of $41,000. The District never sent out that payment because the city’s new safeguards detected the scheme, prosecutors said.
All 11 defendants in the Walters case have pleaded guilty.
