Md. Woman Indicted on 2 Counts in Federal Court

A woman suspected of being a key conspirator in the D.C. government tax refund scandal was indicted in federal court in Greenbelt yesterday, said Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Jayrece Turnbull of Bowie was indicted by a federal grand jury on one charge of receiving stolen property and one count of aiding and abetting. She is accused of receiving a D.C. government check for $410,000 Sept. 1, 2006.

The indictment provided no new details about the transaction and scheme allegations. The scandal might have cost D.C. taxpayers nearly $50 million, according to sources close to the investigation. The embezzlement at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue, considered the largest corruption case in the city's history, went undetected for almost 20 years, the sources said.

Bank records show that more than $12 million in stolen tax receipts flowed over the years into accounts controlled by Turnbull, according to an affidavit. She is being held in jail as a flight risk.

Turnbull was one of five people arrested by federal officials in November in connection with the refund scandal. One investigator said at the time that the arrests were made quickly after the scam was discovered to "stop the hemorrhaging" of refund money.

Turnbull, 34, is the niece of Harriette Walters, a former mid-level supervisor in the D.C. tax office charged with being the mastermind of a major theft scheme. Her actions in the summer aroused the suspicion of a bank employee and led to the federal investigation.

On June 18, Turnbull deposited the $410,000 refund check in a SunTrust bank account, according to a court affidavit prepared by the FBI. A week later, Turnbull wrote a $200,000 check on the account and tried to transfer it to another account she controlled at Bank of America, according to the FBI affidavit. A SunTrust employee balked, questioning whether Turnbull had the right to do that.

When the bank asked Turnbull to provide documents showing she was authorized to transfer the funds, Turnbull went to Prince George's County and filed a trade-name application, according to the FBI affidavit.

Although Turnbull is charged with receiving $410,000 in stolen tax revenue, the FBI traced funds from the scheme to the purchase of her $327,000 home in Bowie, according to court papers. Between November 2002 and January 2005, more than $3.4 million was deposited or transferred into a Bank of America account that Turnbull controlled. During this time, she paid $90,333 on her mortgage.

Turnbull deposited $1.4 million into her Bank of America checking account between June 2004 and August 2007, and, according to court records, she used that account to make 47 more payments, totaling $115,909, on her mortgage.

Authorities found that Turnbull had at least 10 bank accounts, six certificates of deposit and one investment account. She said her project management company had never done any business.

Although she had no known employment, she spent lavishly. She ran up phone bills as high as $1,500 a month. In her closets were designer purses and Italian and French shoes. Turnbull, a native of Puerto Rico, traveled to the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Spain, France and other parts of Europe. A month before the scandal broke, Turnbull had visited the Virgin Islands, where she has aunts, uncles and several other relatives.