The self-confessed money launderer of the worst public corruption scandal in Washington’s history was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison Monday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
Former Bank of America manager Walter Jones will spend the next 78 months in a federal penitentiary. He was sentenced months after he admitted that he helped former District of Columbia tax officer Harriette Walters launder $18 million in bogus property tax refunds.
Jones, of Essex, was a key figure in the decades-old conspiracy. For four years between 2002 and 2006, Jones agreed to run six-figure checks through his bank and to help keep regulators from asking questions. After Jones was fired by Bank of America for unrelated ethical problems, the conspirators were forced to deposit their own checks.
That would lead to their exposure.
A clerk at SunTrust Bank grew suspicious and called authorities last summer.
Walters has admitted to pilfering more than $48 million between 1989 and the time of her arrest in late 2007. She issued hundreds of bogus checks for years and escaped detection in part because she ladled cash and gifts on her co-workers and supervisors.
The District of Columbia is now suing Bank of America for more than $100 million, alleging under federal gatekeeper laws that the bank should have monitored Jones more carefully and reported suspicious activity when it fired him.
Jones said he netted less than $400,000 for his efforts even though his co-conspirators lived lavish lifestyles with the stolen money.
An independent auditor, commissioned by the city, published a report last month blasting D.C.’s financial controls and urging the District to create a central committee to audit the city’s books.
Walters is scheduled to be sentenced in March. If a judge approves the plea deal, she’ll serve 15 to 18 years in prison.
