The man charged with laundering the stolen money in D.C.’s biggest public corruption case has agreed to plead guilty and now faces more than seven years in prison, authorities announced Friday.
Ricardo Walters was accused of moving nearly $5 million stolen with fraudulent property tax refund checks through his bank accounts, spending it lavishly on a high-rolling lifestyle and doling out millions to friends and co-defendants. He is the first person to plead guilty in the scandal.
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Under the plea deal announced Friday, Walters will admit to conspiracy and money-laundering charges. Walters will return at least $1.2 million in ill-gotten cash and goods and prosecutors will seek a sentence of no more than 87 months, Baltimore‘s U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein told The Examiner Friday.
The agreement contains no provision for his testimony. Prosecutors continue to take off-the-record statements from nearly a dozen defendants and even more witnesses, hoping to trace every dollar that was taken from the public during the three-decade scheme.
Some close to the investigation are worried that most of the money may have been squandered and won’t be recovered.
Walters is the nephew of alleged mastermind Harriette Walters. A former mid-level employee in the D.C. tax office, she is accused of siphoning off upward of $40 million in bogus refunds over a nearly three decades. Her arrest last winter has scalded the D.C. government and embarrassed its once widely respected Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi.
Sources say that Ricardo Walters was angry with his aunt over her luxurious lifestyle. He told his aunt months before the raid that she should keep a lower profile because she worked in the tax office and that her spending — millions on gambling excursions, payday loans and top-shelf gifts to friends and coworkers — was bound to attract attention, the sources said.
He will be sentenced in Greenbelt in July.
Ricardo Walters has agreed to return at least $1.2 million in cash and cargo:
» $1.89 million in cash — or goods bought with cash from — SunTrust bank accounts
» $1.87 million in cash — or goods bought with cash from — Bank of America accounts
» 2005 Chrysler Crossfire
» 1969 Chevrolet Camaro
Got a tip on the tax scandal? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or send him an e-mail, [email protected].
