Pr. George's Woman Arrested in D.C. Tax Scam Case

Prince George's County real estate agent Alethia Grooms got nearly a quarter-million dollars in D.C. property tax refunds this year, and prosecutors alleged today that it was stolen money for a phony company she created.

This afternoon, the Clinton resident was arraigned in federal court -- the eighth person arrested on charges of joining in a massive D.C. government embezzlement scam that prosecutors say has cost the city at least $20 million and likely much more. Grooms is a close friend of Harriette Walters, the former mid-level manager at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue and alleged mastermind of the tax scam who was arrested last month.

Grooms's company was called Awsom Graphics but existed only on paper, prosecutors charge.

According to a Washington Post review of city refund checks, Grooms's name is on two city refund checks issued this year. One -- for $84,000 -- was written out to her personally in February. It was marked "hold for pickup" and listed attorney Jeff Nadel as the person to pick up the check. Another, written in June for $125,000, was issued to "AwsomGraphics Group" and listed "A. Grooms" as a co-payee on the check who could be reached at "Carfritz Realty." There is a Cafritz Co. that manages real estate in Washington, but Grooms is not an employee of that company.

Federal authorities have charged Walters and seven others with conspiring to steal city money by generating illegal refunds based on phony companies and fraudulent paperwork. Prosecutors have said they have confirmed that $20 million was lost in illegal checks from 2004 to 2007, but they are still going back to determine how far back the scam dates. A Post analysis found $44 million in suspicious refund checks dating back to 1999, checks that lack a court order and were issued to companies that either don't exist or didn't own the city property listed on the check.

The scam has tarnished the reputation of Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi because he and his deputies failed to detect the long-running embezzlement scam. The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue is the largest office within Gandhi's agency, and the scam appears to have begun when Gandhi was director of the Office of Tax and Revenue in the late 1990s, law enforcement sources say.