This is basically the equivalent of someone stealing the change from your loose change jar, but it is still indicative of the lack of accountability in our government.
On May 4th, Just the News reported the following:
A former State Department senior budget analyst embezzled more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year time period, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. said.
Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Montgomery Village, Maryland, pled guilty to embezzling the money between March 2022 and April 2024 while working in the department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.
“She issued 60 checks payable to herself and three checks payable to another individual with whom she had a personal relationship. She printed and signed each check and then deposited all 63 checks, which totaled $657,347.50, into her personal checking and savings accounts,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
It is disturbing that she seemingly made no effort to hide her crime–that is pretty blatant embezzlement. Even though it was over a two-year period, that amount of money flowing out to a personal account should have been noticed. Do routine audits happen in government agencies? If they don’t, they should. This dishonesty should have easily been picked up by a good auditor.