Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At Large) introduced legislation that would exempt some seniors who have lived in the District for at least a quarter-century from paying property taxes.
The head of D.C.’s tax office says that the $2.6 devaluation in commercial property tax assessments discovered by the Post is not as alarming as it seems.
The District stands to lose $48 million in property-tax revenue this year after more than 500 developments were overvalued by the city’s appraisers and had to be reassessed.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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. Though Walters is credited with being the mastermind of the massive fraud, currently estimated to have totaled up…
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. The tax office is naturally downplaying…
