Washington, D.C. - United States Attorney Roscoe C. Howard, Jr. announced that two former employees of the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue ("DC-OTR"), Sheila R. Palmer, 36, of the 1600 block of Fairlawn Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C., and Margaret Thomas, 34, of Forestville, Maryland, were sentenced this week in United States District Court before the Honorable John D. Bates in connection with their prior pleas of guilty in April of this year to one-count Informations charging mail fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the District of Columbia of $85,355. Specifically, Judge Bates today sentenced Thomas to a term of five months of incarceration, five months of home detention, three years of supervised release, and a restitution order requiring her to repay $34,509.77. Yesterday, June 24, 2002, Thomas' co-defendant, Sheila Palmer, was sentenced by Judge Bates to a term of six months of incarceration, six months of home detention, three years of supervised release, and a restitution order requiring her to repay $32,074.

The government's evidence showed that from March through October, 2001, Palmer and Thomas jointly conducted a scheme to defraud DC-OTR. During the course of the scheme, Palmer and Thomas used their positions with, and access to the computer systems at DC-OTR, to create and insert into the D.C. tax return processing system forty-four (44) fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds totaling $85,355. Before the scheme was uncovered, the defendants received through the U.S. mail thirty-six checks (36) totaling $66,583.77.

In announcing the sentence, United States Attorney Howard commended Charles B. Fultz, and John Keenan, criminal investigators with the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer and DC-OTR, respectively, for their excellent work in investigating this case. The United States Attorney also commended Assistant United States Attorney Marc Litt, who prosecuted the case.