Washington, D.C. – Jacqueline Cecilia Wright pleaded guilty this afternoon to mail fraud based on her scheme to embezzle more than $180,000 from her former employer, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue (“OTR”), announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, and District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi.

Wright, 41, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable James Robertson. The maximum sentence for mail fraud is 20 years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain. Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Wright faces a likely prison sentence of between 15 and 21 months and a fine of between $4,000 and $40,000. Wright has agreed to provide $184,021 in restitution to the District of Columbia. She is scheduled to be sentenced on November 17, 2008.

According to the factual proffer presented by the government in court today, beginning in December 2006, Wright used her position as a revenue officer for OTR and her knowledge of an OTR computer program to generate fraudulent income tax refunds for her boyfriend, Michael Clark. Wright assisted Clark in submitting a fraudulent income tax return. After an income tax return check was mailed to Clark, and deposited into his account, Wright altered OTR computer records to indicate that the check was not received. As a result, a new income tax return check was generated and mailed to Clark. Wright repeated this process several times, allowing her and Clark to share the proceeds of six fraudulently obtained D.C. income tax return checks.

Clark, 32, of District Heights, Maryland, previously pled guilty on July 29, 2008, to mail fraud for his role in the scheme. Clark is to be sentenced on October 16, 2008.

In announcing today’s guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, District of Columbia Inspector General Willoughby, and District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Gandhi commended FBI Special Agents Andrew Sekela and Mary Gleason; Director of Internal Security Charles Fultz and Senior Investigator Donna Tolliver, of the OCFO’s Office of Integrity and Oversight; and D.C. OIG Special Agent Thomas Gibson. They also commended Paralegal Specialist Diane Hayes and Legal Assistant April Peeler. Finally, they commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy G. Lynch and David S. Johnson, who are prosecuting the case.