More Arrests Made In DC Embezzlement Scam

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Authorities have charged two more people, including an IRS manager, in a massive embezzlement scheme involving DC tax dollars. Patricia Steven, of Harwood, Maryland, and Robert Steven, of Edgewater, Maryland, are accused of illegally receiving nearly $3 million in bogus property-tax refund checks. The two are married, but separated. There have now been 10 arrests in the case.

According to an FBI affidavit, Robert Steven has worked for the IRS since 1975 and is a division director at the agency's office in New Carrollton, Maryland. Patricia Steven is accused of going on shopping sprees with former DC tax manager Harriette Walters, the alleged mastermind of the scheme. Authorities have said that Walters and other DC tax employees wrote and cashed fake property tax refunds for companies that didn't exist or weren't owed a refund. Prosecutors estimate at least $20 million was stolen over at least seven years.