Free Republic

A former State Department budget analyst has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year span, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC. Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Maryland, admitted to abusing her signature authority over a State Department checking account between March 2022 and April 2024 in her capacity as a senior budget analyst in the department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol. She wrote 60 checks to herself and three checks to someone else she had a personal relationship with, prosecutors said. She printed and signed each check before depositing all...

A federal judge has sentenced former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO William Smith to 19 years in federal prison for embezzling more than $44 million from the nonprofit over more than a decade. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $48 million in restitution. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy released a statement after the sentencing. It reads: "Today, we move forward to a bright future. We are incredibly grateful to U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq for imposing a sentence commensurate the damage Will Smith inflicted on the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and its community of visitors, donors, and supporters. The U.S....

A Montana official entrusted with preserving Montana’s history is accused of embezzling up to as much as $300,000 in state funds to pay for his tattoo, divorce fees and rent. Michael Elijah Allen, who took over as the Heritage Commission’s executive director in 2012, is accused of embezzling the money between 2020 to early 2024, a criminal complaint filed by Lewis and Clark County. The MHC’s total annual budget is around $2.2 million, which the agency uses to maintain and preserve three important historic sites in Montana. Allen allegedly deployed a variety of tactics to embezzle MHC funds and launder...

Howard Slingerland raised nearly $750,000 for Obama from 2007 to 2012 ... A top fundraiser for former president Barack Obama confessed to misusing more than $600,000 in federal grant money and embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit dedicated to helping impoverished youth, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Howard Dixon Slingerland, who raised nearly $750,000 for both of Obama’s presidential campaigns, illegally took federal grant money to pay off more than $600,000 of his organization’s payroll and credit card debts, which included personal expenses. The $1.5 million grant was meant to provide career advancement for young adults who...

A former education adviser to the Obama administration was arrested Tuesday for allegedly swiping more than $200,000 from a charter school network he founded, federal authorities said. Seth Andrew, 42, who founded Democracy Prep in 2005, embezzled the $218,005 to secure a lower interest rate on a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment in 2019, prosecutors alleged in a complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

Former United Auto Workers President Gary Jones was charged on Thursday with embezzling more than $1 million as part of a US corruption probe that has raised the specter of the federal government taking over the labor union. Jones, who spearheaded the UAW’s contract negotiations late last year with Detroit auto giants as well as a 40-day strike at General Motors, is accused of being part of a group of UAW bigwigs who embezzled more than $1 million to pay for private villas, liquor, golf and other luxuries, according to documents filed with a Michigan federal court and made public...

It was reported recently that a couple of nuns out in Southern California had ripped off the Catholic school where they worked for many years to the tune of at least $500,000. They spent the money on gambling sprees to Las Vegas, among other pursuits. The habit-less sisters, who were henned up together in a Torrance townhouse inside a gated community (the neighbors, according to the Los Angeles Times, wondered how they afforded their matching Volvos), hail from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet — a “social justice” religious order, naturally. But even richer than that, it is the...

Rick Gates took the stand in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial on Monday, where he testified that the two men committed crimes while working together. Gates, a longtime business associate of Manafort's, was indicted on fraud charges in October, but later pleaded guilty to reduced charges as part of a plea deal. According to multiple news outlets, Gates was asked on Monday if he was involved in criminal activity when working with Manafort. “Yes,” Gates reportedly responded. “Did you commit a crime?” the prosecution asked. “Yes,” Gates replied again. Manafort is on trial in Virginia for various financial...

4:21 p.m. Paul Manafort's longtime deputy has been called to the witness stand to testify against the former Trump campaign chairman. Rick Gates has been regarded as a crucial government witness ever since he pleaded guilty last year and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Prosecutors will turn to Gates for first-hand support of their accusations that Manafort concealed millions of dollars in foreign income and later lied when he applied for bank loans. Manafort's defense has sought to blame Gates for any illegal conduct and accused him of embezzling millions of dollars. Gates and Manafort worked...

Daughter of Reverend “God Damn America” Wright and 12 other Democrats are charged with embezzling $16 million in Federal health grants that should have gone to AIDS charities and other programs for the poor and needy. More than one of the defendants has direct ties to President Barack Obama . ... These and other Dems are accused of stealing the money for personal use including mortgage and credit-card payments, vacation home payments, and in one case, a Mercedes-Benz, a Cadillac and a fur coat. Thank god the Democrats are taking over the entire health care system country wide! They’re so...

On October 26, 2011 the UK's Telegraph newspaper ran an obituary which read Disgraced former leader of US Hare Krishna community dies at 74 and recounted the bizarre life and passing of cult leader Swami Kirtanananda Bhaktipada (1937-2011). Kirtanananda was born Keith Gordon Ham in upstate New York the son of an extremely conservative Southern Baptist minister. Keith inherited his father's zeal and recruiting tactics and successfully converted many classmates to "born again" evangelical Christianity. Despite a childhood case of polio, he excelled in high school academics graduating with top honors in 1955 and received a degree in History from...

An attorney was arrested Thursday on charges of embezzling $150,000 from the trust fund he set up for an elderly woman who once worked as Walt Disney's secretary. Prosecutors say Salvatore Patrick Osio, 68, set up the trust for Alicia Waters and her husband in 2002 and took $150,000 out of it for his personal use. Osio was jailed on $150,000 bail after being arrested at his Palos Verdes home. He was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on one count each of grand theft, theft from an elder, forgery and perjury. It couldn't be immediately determined if Osio has hired...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A lawyer convicted of stealing settlement money from vulnerable clients, including $250,000 from a brain-damaged infant, was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 14 years in prison, prosecutors said.Nikolai Tehin, 58, of San Francisco, was found guilty last October in the embezzlement of more than $2 million from his clients' settlement packages."This is the most severe sentence I've ever received from a federal court judge," Tehin's attorney, Harold Rosenthal, said in a telephone interview.During years defending people in medical malpractice and personal injury cases, Tehin would regularly deposit settlement checks into his firm's account and not...

<p>Lawyers for Hawai'i United Public Workers union leader Gary Rodrigues and his daughter, Robin Haunani Rodrigues Sabatini, asked a federal judge yesterday to dismiss portions of 51 counts of a 101-count indictment that accuses Rodrigues of defrauding union members by overcharging them for healthcare benefits.</p>