A former Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity employee has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges after prosecutors say she billed taxpayers for workdays lasting longer than 24 hours, while secretly holding six separate federal contractor jobs on top of her full-time government position. Richeline Anisso Fung, 46, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, and formerly of Maryland, admitted to the scheme in a plea entered in Washington, D.C.
Fung entered her guilty plea on September 2 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. She pleaded guilty to one count of making false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims under 18 U.S.C. § 287, a federal statute that carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Sooknanan has scheduled sentencing for January 20, 2027.
A Full-Time Job Plus Six Contractor Roles
Fung worked for DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, from September 2016 through October 2025. Between January 2021 and August 2024, she simultaneously held contractor positions supporting six additional federal entities, according to Nextgov/FCW: the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Some of that contractor work was performed directly, and some through RAF Pro-Consulting LLC, a Florida company Fung incorporated in 2020, according to townhall.com. Prosecutors say Fung concealed her overlapping DHS-CISA employment and contractor jobs from each of the organizations involved. Nextgov/FCW's report notes she was able to keep the arrangement hidden because every position was performed remotely through telework, an arrangement that left the different agencies without any shared payroll system to cross-check her hours.
The Timesheets That Didn't Add Up
The scheme unraveled once investigators examined her billing records. In February 2022 alone, while simultaneously billing CISA and three contractor roles supporting the DOJ, USDA, and FHWA, Fung reported working more than 24 combined hours in a single day on 15 separate occasions, per the Justice Department. That included four consecutive days of claimed 33-hour shifts from February 7 through February 10, 2022, followed by a claimed 32-hour day on February 11.
Federal timesheets require employees to certify their hours under penalty of law, making the mathematically impossible entries a clear red flag. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said Fung “abused her positions as a federal employee and government contractor to steal nearly $250,000 from the U.S. government.” Prosecutors say the fraud caused a loss of nearly a quarter-million dollars, and under her plea agreement Fung must pay full restitution.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said Fung “stole a quarter-million dollars from American taxpayers and must pay full restitution.” Kondi Kleinman is prosecuting the case, according to townhall.com's report, while Fung is represented by defense attorney William L. Drake of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, per PacerMonitor court records, which list the case as USA v. Fung, No. 1:26-cr-00177, filed in Washington's federal court in late July.
A Joint Investigation Across Four Watchdog Offices
Untangling Fung's cross-agency billing required cooperation among multiple oversight bodies. The case was investigated jointly by the Offices of Inspector General for AmeriCorps, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the FBI's Washington Field Office, according to The BayNet.
The prosecution falls under the Justice Department's newly created National Fraud Enforcement Division, which focuses on investigating and prosecuting people who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars, according to the DOJ's announcement cited in the article. The division was formally established on April 7, 2026, by then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and is led by McDonald, consolidating federal fraud cases under one roof; according to Latham & Watkins LLP, the division transferred more than 150 prosecutors to centralize data-driven fraud prosecutions nationwide.
Part of a Broader Federal Crackdown
Fung's case also lands squarely within a wider executive push to root out fraud across federal programs. President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance, aims to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within federal benefit programs. As of August, the task force reported uncovering roughly $230 billion in federal fraud and preventing $56 billion in improper payments across government programs, according to a White House release.
Those numbers sit against a much larger backdrop. U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates cited in 2026 Justice Department enforcement directives put total annual federal losses to fraud somewhere between $233 billion and $521 billion, according to Maynard Nexsen. This article also discusses timesheet overbilling and remote-work double-dipping. What Fung's specific job duties at CISA involved, and whether her overlapping employment compromised any security clearances or sensitive government data, remain open questions that have not been addressed in court filings so far.
