Boyfriend of Former District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue Employee Pleads Guilty to Income Tax Fraud Scheme
Washington, D.C. – Michael Maurice Clark pleaded guilty this morning to mail fraud based on his scheme to embezzle more than $180,000 from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue (“OTR”), U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, and District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi jointly announced today.
(PressZoom) - Washington, D.C. – Michael Maurice Clark pleaded guilty this morning to mail fraud based on his scheme to embezzle more than $180,000 from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue ( “OTR” ), U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, and District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi jointly announced today.
Clark, 31, of District Heights, Maryland, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable James Robertson. The maximum sentence for mail fraud is 20 years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain. Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Clark faces a likely prison sentence of between 15 and 21 months and a fine of between $4,000 and $40,000. Clark agreed to provide $184,021.03 in restitution to the District of Columbia. Clark is to be sentenced on October 16, 2008.
According to the factual proffer presented in Court today, beginning in December 2006, Clark conspired with his girlfriend, Jacqueline Cecilia Wright, to defraud OTR through fraudulent income tax returns. Clark agreed that Wright would use her position as a revenue officer for OTR and her knowledge of an OTR computer program to embezzle government funds. With Wright’s help, Clark submitted a fraudulent income tax return. After an income tax return check was mailed to Clark, and deposited into his account, Wright altered OTR computer records to indicate that the check was not received. As a result, a new income tax return check was generated and mailed to Clark. Wright repeated this process several times, allowing Clark and Wright to share the proceeds of six fraudulently obtained D.C. income tax return checks.
Wright has also been charged in connection with this scheme. Her case is pending before the Court.
In announcing today’s guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor, Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, and District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi commended FBI Special Agents Andrew Sekela and Mary Gleason; Director of Internal Security Charles Fultz and Senior Investigator Donna Tolliver of the OCFO Office of Integrity and Oversight; and OIG Special Agent Thomas Gibson. They also commended Paralegal Specialist Diane Hayes, Legal Assistant April Peeler, and summer legal intern George Ingham. Finally, they commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy G. Lynch and David S. Johnson, who are prosecuting the case.
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