Levita Almuete Ferrer, a 65-year-old former State Department budget analyst from Montgomery Village, Md., has been sentenced to a year and a day behind bars after pleading guilty to embezzlement charges, siphoning off over $650,000 from government funds. This sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, alongside the U.S. Department of State's Office of Inspector General and the Diplomatic Security Service Office of Special Investigations, according to a report by the Department of Justice.
The scheme unraveled as Ferrer admitted to issuing herself 60 checks and an additional three to an associate over a two-year span from March 2022 to April 2024, abusing her authority within the Office of the Chief of Protocol, and Ferrer's post-pleading-guilty actions only worsened her predicament by flouting a court order and revisiting a casino; this misconduct swiftly ended in detention pending her sentencing. Judge Christopher R. Cooper, besides imposing the confinement, mandated Ferrer to pay back a staggering $657,347.50 and enjoined her from gambling or casino visits during her subsequent three years of supervised release.
Ferrer's clandestine operations involved the strategic manipulation of a QuickBooks account at the State Department, cunningly changing the payee details post-printing the checks to mirror legitimate vendors, thus obfuscating her digital breadcrumbs unless an audit trail was conducted. The details of her subterfuge were shared in an official announcement, thanks to the investigative efforts spearheaded by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General and Diplomatic Security Service, with the legal proceedings handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kondi Kleinman.
