Everyday white-collar crime adds up

After seven days of jury deliberation, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted yesterday of misappropriating gift cards donated for children to use during the holidays. Her sentencing, and whether she can continue to serve in office, remains to be seen.

Just as Baltimore has a reputation for violent crime, Maryland has a history of political corruption. The state isn’t immune to the many other forms of white-collar crime that exist across the country either.

The following court scenes didn’t get the public scrutiny that Dixon’s trial and Tiger Woods’ backing into a fire hydrant did, but they serve as examples of ways in which fraud can affect anyone and everyone:

This morning, a Parkville woman who worked at the Mondawmin Mall branch of the MVA in Baltimore pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce and sell fraudulently issued driver’s licenses. According to her plea agreement, she scanned false information into the MVA database or invented false license information from other states, and didn’t make applicants take required tests.

Yesterday, a former window clerk at the Elkridge post office was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing first-class stamps for a conspirator to sell. According to prosecutors, the post office lost $682,809 through this scheme.

Also yesterday, a former senior manager and scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center was sentenced to one year of probation and 50 hours of community service and fined $10,000 for a felony conflict of interest charge in connection with his wife’s company getting NASA contracts.

In a case in which money was the least important factor, a former teacher in Frederick was sentenced yesterday to nine years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for receiving child pornography. He also has pleaded guilty to videotaping girls as they changed clothes at the middle school where he worked.

Two weeks ago, a patient services coordinator at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing information about more than 100 patients to fraudulently obtain credit used to purchase merchandise and obtain cash. Another woman involved in the scheme has been sentenced to five years in prison.