While perusing the morning’s news for District Line Daily (are you subscribed?), we noticed that today had lots of city employee corruption news! Let’s review:
1) Those two WMATA employees have pleaded guilty to stealing $445,000 in coins: “Horace Dexter McDade, 58, of Bowie, and John Vincent Haile, 54, of Woodbridge each pleaded to two counts of stealing from an agency that receives federal money, then conspiring to launder the coins.” They used the money to pay off debts and buy lottery tickets, the Examiner’s Kytja Weir writes.
2) Former D.C. tax examiner Mary Ayers-Zander sentenced for stealing $415,000 electronically, reports the Examiner’s Scott McCabe: “Ayers-Zander, a tax examiner, began stealing from District taxpayers in February 2007 — about the same time that authorities were uncovering the largest government swindle in the city’s history just down the hallway inside the same tax office. Over the next four years, on dozens of occasions, Ayers-Zander wired thousand of dollars to her own bank accounts, prosecutors said.”
3) Metro employees bought Kindles, gift cards, and fancy headphones with agency credit cards, reports the Post’s Dana Hedgpeth: “The inspector general’s report calls into question purchases worth almost $10,000. There was ‘an attempt to cover up these unauthorized purchases with descriptions of legitimate’ ones, the report said. The report cites 55 instances in which an unnamed person ‘entered an inaccurate expense description . . . or no description at all.’ Officials could not account for some items, including three camcorders worth $729.94, a $499.99 BlackBerry, Beats by Dr. Dre earbuds for $179.99 and more than $2,000 worth of gift cards.”