A federal judge has slapped a one-year prison sentence on Levita Ferrer, who used her position in the State Department to write more than $650,000 worth of checks to herself on the taxpayers’ dime.
Ferrer, 65, has blamed “pandemic stress” for creating a gambling addiction that she fueled by stealing the money from Uncle Sam, saying her repeated trips to casinos were her way of “coping” with the chaos of living through the tough times.
She had “signature authority” to write checks and wrote out 60 to herself and three to a friend over two years, starting in March 2022.
Ferrer tried to hide the theft by going into the department’s QuickBooks account and removing her name as the recipient of the checks, instead inserting names of actual government vendors.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced her to a year and a day in prison, with credit for time served. She also faces three years of supervised release, and she’s on the hook for $657,347 in restitution payments.
Ferrer has been in custody since the spring, when her bail was revoked.
Authorities say the very day she pleaded guilty and was ordered to avoid casinos, she was back at the MGM National Harbor casino in Maryland to gamble, and returned the following week as well. Prosecutors said she lost thousands of dollars that she’d just promised to start repaying.
Those prosecutors had asked for an 18-month sentence followed by supervised release.
Ferrer’s lawyers had sought a sentence of time served, followed by supervised release.
In a letter to the court ahead of her sentencing, Ferrer blamed the gambling.
“I have betrayed the trust placed in me,” she wrote. “I deeply regret not getting the help I needed before stealing taxpayer funds to fuel my addiction.”
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• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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