A Montgomery Village woman who worked for the U.S. State Department pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year period, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a press release.
Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, entered a plea agreement Wednesday in which she admitted to abusing her signature authority over a State Department checking account between March 2022 and April 2024, Wednesday’s release said. During that time, Ferrer worked as a senior budget analyst in the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.
Ferrer pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of theft of government property. Judge Christopher R. Cooper set Ferrer’s sentencing for Sept. 18. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to the release.
Under the plea agreement, Ferrer will pay $657,347.50 in restitution to the U.S. government, the release said. She also agreed to be liable for a forfeiture money judgment in the same dollar amount.
David Schertler, an attorney for Ferrer, did not immediately respond to Bethesda Today’s request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
According to Ferrer’s LinkedIn account, she began working at the State Department in 2015.
Over a period of more than two years, Ferrer issued 60 checks payable to herself and three checks payable to someone with whom she had a personal relationship, the release said. Ferrer printed and signed each check and deposited them into her personal checking and savings accounts.
To conceal the fraud, Ferrer used a QuickBooks account at the State Department, the release said. Ferrer entered her name as the payee on the checks and after printing them, she changed the name of the payee to an actual State Department vendor.
“As a result, anyone viewing those entries in the Quickbooks system did not see Ferrer’s name as the payee on the checks unless they accessed an audit trail,” the release said.
The embezzlement case was investigated by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General and Diplomatic Security Service.
