So where’d the money go?
Mother Harriette
I can’t believe that this story hasn’t grown legs. No one outside of the blogosphere and the Beltway has heard of this potentially $30 million rip-off by relatively low-level government employees. I work across the street from the DC Tax and Revenue Office and two of my workmates from Baltimore have never heard of the scam. It’s 30 MILLION BUCKS, for cryin’ outloud.
The worst part? The Feds don’t know how much was stolen or where it went according to the Washington Examiner;
The number of phony checks recorded by the scandal-ridden D.C. tax office continues to grow, but a critical question remains: Where did the money go?
If cashed, the bogus checks would have cost the District more than $40 million, according to a report published by The Washington Post, and a similar tally was reached by The Examiner.
But investigators cautioned that it is far from certain what amount was ever actually stolen from the city tax coffers. Tax office thieves may have prepared checks that for various reasons were never cashed.
Law enforcement officials have told The Examiner that the case is probably much more complicated than adding up fraudulent-appearing check approvals from city records.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that $44.3 million in false payment approvals could be found in a review of tax record offices dating to June 1999. An analysis by The Examiner has found $41.5 in questionable approvals.
It’s so bad that the Feds are going to give immunity to one of the suspects so they can just get an outline of what the hell happened;
A former tax office employee has been offered one day of immunity to tell prosecutors what she knows about the largest corruption scandal in D.C. history.
Diane Gustus is facing up to 100 years in prison on charges that she helped co-worker Harriette Walters siphon off tens of millions of dollars through a series of phony tax refunds and dummy companies.
But authorities have given her limited immunity for a meeting this week in the hope that she can help unravel the conspiracy and help the government track down the stolen money, sources with intimate knowledge of the case told The Examiner.
Yeah, lets get some bigger government and give them more of our money because they’re so careful with how it gets spent.
