Former Tax Clerk Sentenced to 15 Months in Refund Scam

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By Del Quentin Wilber

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 17, 2008; 4:58 PM

A 41-year-old former clerk at the D.C. Department of Tax and Revenue was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for operating a refund scam that netted her and her boyfriend $184,000.

Jacqueline C. Wright of Temple Hills pleaded guilty in August to mail fraud, admitting she manipulated a government computer system to issue phony refunds in 2007 that that she split with her boyfriend.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson said Wright deserved prison time because she abused her job as a public official.

"There is no excuse for a District of Columbia employee to engage in the outright and outrageous conduct you engaged in," said Robertson, who also ordered Wright to pay restitution.

Wright told Robertson she was "remorseful" for her conduct. Last month, Robertson sentenced Wright's boyfriend, Michael Clark, 32, to six months in a halfway house and four years of probation for his role in the scheme, which was not connected to the $48.1 million embezzlement scam uncovered in the D.C. tax office last year.