A woman who used her job to steal more than $650,000 in government funds at the State Department begged the judge for leniency, blaming the pandemic pressure because she said she had to join the taxpayer’s cash.
Levita Ferrer65. There are so-called “signature authorities” who write checks on the State Council’s bank account. She wrote 63 separate forged checks to send money to herself to maintain gambling habits and then forged records to hide the scam.
It was so bad that she entered the day of guilty confession, ordered to avoid the casino and start to return to the original state with her money, she returned to MGM National Port Casino. Prosecutors said she also returned next week, wasting thousands of dollars she had just promised to repay U.S. taxpayers.
“I betrayed my trust.” Ferrer She said in a letter to the court before the sentence on September 18. “I deeply regret not getting the help I need until I steal taxpayer funds to aggravate my addiction.”
Ferrer She is a budget analyst at the State Council Agreement Office and has the right to write government checks.
She wrote her first bad check in March 2022 for $4,800. Over the next two years, as of April 2024, sixty-two checks will continue to higher.
She wrote 60 checks to herself and gave to the authorities who said she had a “personal relationship”.
She tried to hide theft by changing the department’s QuickBooks account, deleting her name as payee and inserting a legal State Department supplier.
Both federal prosecutors and Ferrer’s lawyers said it shocked her colleagues and colleagues who were unable to engage in mass fraud with retired women who immigrated from the Philippines, who spent 26 years in the U.S. Navy and then a decade at the State Department.
Ferrer’s lawyer said the answer was in the pandemic.
“During the 19th pandemic, Ms. Ferrer began gambling more frequently as a coping mechanism for the stressful world and work environment,” Noah Cherry told the judge. “As visits to Ferrer Casinos increased during the pandemic, her gambling habits flourished into debilitating addiction.”
She quickly gambled $30,000 a month on slot machines.
One night, she won $196,000, but her losses far exceeded her bonus. She believes she lost $900,000 during the pandemic gambling rave, most of which was driven by the money she stole.
A friend said in a letter to the court that Ferrer was also facing new personal “emotional” pressure because he had a daughter and two grandchildren living with her.
A nephew in the Philippines also counts on her academic payments at medical school, her lawyer said.
They asked the judge to sentence Ferrer to release Ferrer for a certain amount of time and gave the conditions that met.
They say it is counterproductive to leave a 65-year-old woman in prison.
However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the crime was a betrayal of the government and asked for more. Prosecutors demanded a sentence of 18 months in prison before a further three years of supervised release.
“Every time she writes a fraudulent check, she has a choice – steal or not.” She repeatedly chose to steal. ”
Although she pleaded guilty to 63 bad checks and cover-ups, the deal she made with prosecutors convicted of a charge of stealing government property.
Prosecutors said Ferrer had agreed to sell three properties to start rehabilitation, but soon violated the deal. It was by returning to the casino to break her pre-sentence release clause.
She was ordered to return to prison, where she had been in more than three months.
Prosecutors said Friday she did make a new proposal to sell the properties, and her lawyers said she was working hard to do it.
The case is in front of Judge Christopher Cooper appointed by Obama.
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