Harriette Walters (born c. 1956) is a former civil servant who worked as a

tax assessment Tax assessment, or assessment, is the job of determining the value, and sometimes determining the use, of property, usually to calculate a property tax. This is usually done by an office called the assessor or tax assessor. Governments need to ...

s manager for the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. She was convicted of being the central participant in the largest

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

scheme ever perpetrated by a District of Columbia government official. According to those officials, she worked with others to fraudulently approve over $31 million in improper

tax refund A tax refund or tax rebate is a payment to the taxpayer due to the taxpayer having paid more tax than they owed. By country United States According to the Internal Revenue Service, 77% of tax returns filed in 2004 resulted in a refund check, ...

s, with some estimates nearing $50 million. In her office, she was referred to as "Mother Walters" for the loans and extravagant gifts with which she would shower her fellow employees and friends. Walters was arrested in November 2007. From the ''

Washington Examiner The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is ow ...

'' (June 30, 2009): 'Self-confessed tax scam mastermind Harriette Walters was led off to prison Tuesday, but not before warning a federal judge that the District's finance office is still dangerously exposed to another massive rip-off. "'If you let me into my office, I guarantee I could get each of you a check', Walters told prosecutors and federal Judge Emmet Sullivan before he sentenced her to 17-and-a-half years in prison." The fraud scheme of Harriette Walters has been the subject of academic and professional publications. Jacoby, Loringo, and McCallum describe the mechanics of the fraud scheme together with some informative analytics looking at the amounts over time. The authors then review the importance of internal controls and also review the control activity deficiencies that allowed the proceeds of the fraud scheme to exceed $48 million. Walters was released from prison after serving more than 14 years on January 13, 2022.https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/

References

External links

Bureau of Prisons locator
* ttps://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603621.html ''Washington Post'' article, September 17, 2008br>"Tax Scam Leader Gets More Than 17 Years", ''Washington Post'' article, July 1, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walters, Harriette Living people Year of birth missing (living people)