When news first broke of a massive embezzlement fraud in the Washington, DC tax office, Chief Financial Officer, Natwar M. Gandhi called the $16 million thefts "immaterial." One wonders if Mr. Gandhi would like to adjust his language and perhaps call it "insignificant" now that the total thefts appear to total more than $30 million.
Federal authorities initially said the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue had lost more than $16 million in a brazen refund scam orchestrated by a mid-level manager. They later upped the figure to $20 million and warned that the damage could be even higher as their investigation continues. Yesterday, law enforcement sources confirmed that taxpayer losses could reach $30 million or more.
The Post's analysis showed that the volume and pace of suspicious activity at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue reached its peak in the past three years. Of all real estate tax refunds issued in that span, about half appeared suspicious.
And of the $37 million refunded from the start of 2005 to July 2007, the dubious checks total more than $19 million.
Harriette Walters, the former manager in charge of property tax refunds, was arrested Nov. 7 and is charged with signing off on payments to sham companies controlled by family members and others who were in on the scheme. Six people have been charged, including tax employee Diane Gustus, one of several city workers who prepared or handled paperwork leading to the checks.
So far, prosecutors have publicly accused Walters and others of conspiring to fabricate 58 fraudulent refund checks, amounting to $20 million, and then using the sham companies to steer money to themselves. In court papers yesterday, prosecutors said that Walters has "confessed" to the activities and that she "approved each and every fraudulent voucher."
A total of $19 million out of $37 million in refunds in one year were fraudulent? More than half the total was bogus? There are some very, very serious questions that need to be asked and answered about the competency of the Washington, DC government. The voters need to start asking those questions right now.
You’re joking, right? DC voters ask questions? This is just indicative of why DC shouldn’t have voting representation in Congress – the voters keep returning the same criminals to positions of responsibility (um, a certain convicted crackhead whoremongering tax evader currently sitting on the DC City Council comes immediately to mind).
Yeah, I suppose it is overly optimistic…
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I wonder if there’s any connection between the fact that all these scandals keep happening in Washington D.C. and the fact that it’s the most consistently liberal city in America? I’m not pointing any fingers, you understand, just wondering…………………………….
Any chance of the blatantly rascist post by Mockinbird being taken down? Not the best reflection on the site.
And just for the hell of it – any chance of the nine or ten BILLION dollar bills that have gone missing in Iraq being mentioned?
Newspaper stories have been written – the deficit has been acknowledged. Nobody seems to know anything.
Where is the outrage?
I’m not trying to be an ass – I really do wonder why conservatives seem to conveniently ignore the horrible waste and fraud that has been perpetuated during this war.
This post isn’t liberal or conservative – of course the D.C. mess is horrible – but where is the fiscally conservative outrage when we are being ripped off on a much grander and infuriating scale?
As a gesture of peace I won’t even mention the Haliburton overcharging and bill padding scandals which amount to a hell of a lot more than the D.C. mess.
Oops.
Congress voted the funds. The money was not stolen. Your political hijack of the thread is inappropriate.
Kevin, Kevin, Kevin… put down the Kool-Aid! You want to talk about waste and fraud?? Check out all the ‘ear marks’ added to HR3043 “2,274 projects so far in the Labor/HHS portion of the bill worth $1 billion” just as one example.
Look at the chronic waste and fraud that our Congress perpetrates on a daily basis. They are so busy hating the current administration and playing politics that they can’t even get bills to the White House on time. Almost a year in office and what do they have to show for it… and that goes for both democrats AND republicans!