With the tax filing deadline approaching—it's April 17 this year—here's some handy info: more and more people are filing electronically in D.C., and they get their refunds faster. more ›

One time, a friend of mine told me a story about this time he lost his keys. more ›

Yesterday, authorities arrested four men in connection with a massive bribery scheme inside the Army Corps of Engineers. The details of the alleged crime should ring familiar for many D.C. residents. more ›

Via NBCWashington.com, we're sent to this link, which shows luxury items currently up for bid from a Texas auction house that is working with the U.S. Marshals Service to move all of infamous D.C. government embezzler Harriette Walters' ill-gotten luxury goods. more ›

Joe Englert's got company. Following on the news that the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue briefly closed the Argonaut today for back sales and use taxes, OTR released a list of seven other restaurants that met the same fate. Collectively, these restaurants owe more than $860,000 in sales taxes: INTI (1825 18th Street NW), Prince of Georgetown (3205 Prospect Street NW), Besta Pizza (5029 Connecticut Avenue NW), Porter's (1207 19th Street NW), Prince Café (1042 Wisconsin Avenue NW), Mendocino Grille (2917 M Street NW) and Café Nema (1334 U Street NW). None of these restaurants belong to Englert's greater restaurant collective, which suggests that OTR is engaged in a broader collection campaign. Mendocino Grille was recently sold; it's unclear whether the delinquency occurred under the new or old management. And INTI is a quite small business that may have started on a microloan. No one answered the telephone at any of these spots or at OTR. more ›

Joe Englert's H Street NE bar The Argonaut was closed last night, thanks to a dispute with the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue, as Frozen Tropics reported earlier this morning. Englert tried to explain his side of what happened in a statement to the neighborhood blog, outlining a process that started with being notified that three of his businesses owed tens of thousands of in back sales and use taxes. He said two of those accounts were quickly resolved, but The Argonaut's was more complicated, and "even though we kept in daily contact with the Department and even though we were told repeatedly that we were working in compliance, they came any way and shut us down," Englert wrote. more ›

Ever since the queen of all local government crooks, D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue embezzler Harriette Walters, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison, there's been a tiny little hole in our collective hearts. We'd been following the $50 million tax scam case, and all its twists and turns along the way, since it first broke in 2007. Now that's it's over, to where will we turn when we feel like shaking our fists in disgust at governmental corruption? Luckily, we live in the District of Columbia, where corruption in local government is as common as dirt. more ›

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The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue put out a short press release today reminding residents that the annual August Sales Tax Holiday isn't happening this year, so a number of outlets have been reporting the news as though this just happened today. In fact, this decision was made in early May, when the D.C. Council approved the FY2010 budget, which nixed the popular back-to-school and holiday-season sales tax break periods in order to hang on to an estimated $640,000 in revenue for the cash-strapped District. In its release today, the OTR reminded local merchants who have previously participated in the sales tax holiday to ensure that their point of sale equipment is programmed to collect the tax this year. more ›

Harriette Walters, the ringleader behind a massive, two-decade-long, $50 million embezzlement scheme run from the inside of the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue, has been sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison today. more ›

The Post takes a look at some court papers filed by the attorney for Office of Tax and Revenue embezzler Harriette Walters, and finds that her legal team is arguing for leniency during sentencing by playing the "she had a rough childhood" card. The lawyer wrote that Walters stole the money so that she could give some of it away, which made her feel better about herself.

Tabackman attributed her father's "central role as the family's gift giver" as the "source of her documented practice of giving away extraordinary sums." more ›

With news today that the 11th Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement scheme co-conspirator has received her prison sentence, all we have left in the case is to await the sentencing of mastermind Harriette Walters. Connie Alexander, Walters' gambling friend who was one of the first people to come forward to cooperate with the authorities in the wake of the scandal, was sentenced to almost four years in prison by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. yesterday, the Post reports. All 12 indicted members of the $50 million conspiracy have pleaded guilty, and the 11 who have already been sentenced received prison time ranging from one year up to six and a half years. You can be sure that Walters will receive the longest sentence of all 12. She's scheduled to be sentenced in June. more ›

Del Quentin Wilber files yet another sentencing story in the ongoing Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement court proceedings. This time, it's Alethia Grooms, 53, close friend of Harriette Walters and early participant in the $50 million scam. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sentenced Grooms to just over 3 years in prison today, in addition to restitution in the amount of nearly $651,000. Best tidbit from the courtroom: '[The judge] noted that Grooms received the scheme's first and last fraudulent refund checks in the 18-year scam. "She was there from day one until the last day," Sullivan said. "She was not a minor" player.' Today's sentencing brings the total to nine our of the 11 people who have pleaded guilty in the case so far. Harriette Walters is scheduled to be sentenced in June. more ›

It's a been a while since we've had any more jail sentences to report in the massive Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement case. WaPo brings us this one today: Samuel Earl Pope, 61, the former owner of the Head to Toe Salon in Southwest, was sentenced today to four years and three months in prison for his role in the scheme. Pope, who was one of the earlier members of the Harriette Walters-led bunch o' thieves, was also ordered to pay $1,586,406 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. BTW, Harriette Walters herself is scheduled to be sentenced in June. more ›

The Post reported this afternoon that one more sentence has been handed down in the Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement case. Walter R. Jones Jr., 34, the former Bank of America assistant branch manager who helped Harriette Walters deposit a total of 61 checks totaling almost $18 million, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison today. Jones received approximately $360,000 from Walters for his participation in the scheme, a relatively small sum compared to his cohorts, who all together stole at least $50 million from District taxpayers. By all accounts Jones has been contrite and cooperative since his arrest and subsequent guilty plea, but he received a sentence roughly in the middle of the federal sentencing guidelines. U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. noted in his decision that were it not for Jones and his position at Bank of America, "the scheme would not have continued for so long." more ›

D.C. Wire has a fantastic tidbit from a series of internal Office of Tax and Revenue emails between District CFO Natwar Gandhi and embezzler of $50 million Harriette Walters. The emails, written in April of 2007, about seven months before the scandal broke, came about after Gandhi sent out an announcement to his employees letting them know that had decided not to accept an offer to become Amtrak’s CFO. Walters replied to Gandhi's staff-wide email with a brown-nosing note full of bad grammar: “Sir, I would like to say thank you for keeping us inform [sic] of a decision that would have impacted the employees within the CFO Cluster. I appreciate that you respected us to provide follow up to the recent news reports that we read and heard over the pat [sic] week. Thank You!” Gandhi then wrote back to Walters: “Thank you. Keep up the good work.” more ›

Add one more to the growing list of folks involved in the massive Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement scandal who have been sentenced to prison time. Marilyn Yoon, the Neiman Marcus saleswoman who was Harriette Walters' personal shopper, was sentenced yesterday to one year in jail. Yoon pleaded guilty to one charge of possession of property obtained by fraud, and also agreed to forfeit her home. The U.S. attorney's office said that Yoon should be credited with coming forward right away and expressing regret, and recommended the relatively lenient 12-month sentence.
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Two more sentences have been handed down in the epic story of the Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement case. The Post reports that Patricia Steven, 73, has been sentenced to five years and two months in prison for her role in the scam, while her estranged husband, Robert, 55, got three years and 10 months. Patricia Steven was a friend of Harriette Walters, and became involved in the embezzlement ring as early as 1990. Robert Steven appears to have received a lighter sentence due to his cooperation with prosecutors and claim that he was misled by his wife about where the money was coming from. The Stevens helped steal about $8 million of the roughly $50 million believed to have been taken in the Walters scam. more ›

From the Post, we learn that Richard Walters, younger brother of Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement mastermind Harriette Walters, has been sentenced to four years and three months in prison for his role in the scheme. Richard Walters pleaded guilty in May to personally helping his sister steal $4.9 million of the over $50 million she stole altogether. more ›

The Post is reporting that a guilty plea looks like it's been entered for former D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue employee El-Hadj Drame, who amazingly enough stands accused of corruption and bribery all on his own, without any help from Harriette Walters and her crew. Papers were filed that indicate a guilty plea for Drame, who is accused of receipt of a bribe by a public official for accepting a payment of $6,000 in exchange for lowering the tax liability of a business he was auditing. Doesn't seem like the business in question has been publicly named yet. Isn't it amazing that the recent tax office scandal makes this $6000 bribe seem like small potatoes? In case you missed the Post's big spread in Sunday's paper chronicling the full history of the $50 million, 20-year-long Walters-led embezzlement scheme, here's the link. more ›

As expected, Harriette Walters entered a plea of guilty today, admitting to her role as the head of an elaborate scheme that pilfered almost $50 million from District of Columbia taxpayers. more ›

Big scoop for the Examiner: Harriette Walters, the alleged mastermind behind the enormous Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement scandal, will plead guilty. Walters is charged with heading up an elaborate scheme that resulted in $48 million worth of phony property-tax refunds. Nearly all of the eleven other people charged for their involvement in the scam have already pleaded guilty and presumably agreed to testify against Walters, had she gone forward with a trial. more ›

Nice work by the Post's David Nakamura over at D.C. Wire -- he figured out that you can still call an old extension at the Office of Tax and Revenue and hear an outgoing message that begins, "You've reached the office of Harriette Walters." Apparently officials decided to keep the line active with Walters's voice message to see if anyone would leave a message for her that would aid investigators. We just gave it a call ourselves -- 202.442.6762 -- and indeed, there is Walters, sounding officious as she leaves instructions on how to reach her. Give it a call yourself if you've ever been curious what her voice sounds like, but do it fast. Odds are good the city is going to shut it down now that random residents are calling it for kicks. more ›

As expected, former IRS employee Robert Steven, 55, pleaded guilty in federal court today for his involvement in the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue scandal. Steven remains free until he is sentenced on Oct. 8. The Post has a bit more information about the role Steven and his estranged wife Patricia played in the enormous embezzlement scheme.

A bank account set up by the couple in the name of a clothing design firm took in $9.2 million in embezzled funds from 1990 to 2007, according to prosecutors. Of that, $1.7 million was transferred into a Wachovia account used primarily by Robert Steven, according to court documents. With that money, Steven bought four cars, all Jaguars, as well as a home in Edgewater and numerous vacations to the Bahamas, prosecutors said.

The Post says that Robert Steven, a former division director of the IRS's New Carrollton office, appears set to plead guilty in federal court today for his involvement in the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue scandal. Steven and his estranged wife are both longtime friends of Harriette Walters and have both been charged; Steven's charges are listed as possession of stolen property and conspiring to commit money laundering. Missing from the story: did Steven's IRS expertise help to make the scam possible? We're looking forward to finding out if and when a plea agreement is announced. more ›

The ax keeps coming down on the Harriette Walters crew. The Post is reporting that Walter Jones, 33, a former Bank of America manager from Essex, Md., has pleaded guilty to his role in the Office of Tax and Revenue embezzlement case, which included laundering roughly $18 million, and personally receiving more than $366,000 in stolen money. more ›

It's almost as if the District's Office of Tax and Revenue has been looking for more ways to come across as a bunch of buffoons. Today the Examiner reports on how one persistent Capitol Hill resident, Noah Meyerson, was responsible for forcing the office to fix an error they had not even detected which allowed roughly 300 homeowners to skip out on an entire property tax payment last year. more ›

District CFO Natwar Gandhi sent out a press release announcing the appointment of Stephen Cordi, a former deputy comptroller for the state of Maryland, as the new director of the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue. Cordi takes the job vacated by Sherryl Hobbs Newman after she was fired in the wake of the biggest city government embezzlement scandal in history. more ›