Government
Fraud Case Fallout Taints Tax Specialist, Department of Revenue
Around the State
Deon McCrimmon
Deon McCrimmon was convicted in U.S. District Court in Georgia of concealing a $139,169 unpaid IRS bill and overstating her income when she applied for a home loan in Albany, Ga.
Less than seven months later, and while still on probation, McCrimmon landed a job at the Florida Department of Revenue on April 8, 2005.
DOR declined to discuss McCrimmon's case or her status. Spokeswoman Renee Watters said the matter was under investigation by the department's inspector general.
The inspector general's office confirmed that the McCrimmon case was "open," but would not elaborate.
McCrimmon did not return Sunshine State News' call seeking comment.
Court records show that McCrimmon was a bank examiner at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Georgia during the time of her illicit activities. A source said she was terminated by FDIC upon her conviction.
How McCrimmon, a convicted felon, navigated through the hiring process and standard background checks at the Department of Revenue is unclear. But a source close to the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that McCrimmon "may have schemed with another Revenue employee and friend to circumvent the hiring and interviewing process by getting the interviewing team to forgo and not perform the task of due diligence to its fullest."
The federal indictment stated that McCrimmon "knowingly and willfully devised a scheme and artifice" to defraud Homecomings Financial Network Inc. when she applied for a $211,000 home loan.
McCrimmon, the indictment said, "falsely stated on a Uniform Residential Loan Application that she had liabilities in the total amount of $76,976. In truth and fact, as she well knew at the time, defendant McCrimmon had liabilities in the total amount of at least $186,976," including a $139,169 unpaid IRS bill.
The indictment also said McCrimmon "fraudulently represented" her monthly income as $10,000. It was actually $5,685.
"The defendant knew that her real income would not qualify her for the loan she sought from Homecomings Financial," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Crane wrote in the June 25, 2004, indictment.
Pleading guilty, McCrimmon was ordered to pay $24,775 in restitution to Homecomings and was placed on five years' probation.
Today, McCrimmon earns $43,701 a year at the Department of Revenue -- barely two-thirds what she made at FDIC.
It is not known if McCrimmon made all the court-ordered restitution payments or fulfilled the terms of her probation.
But the source who blew the whistle on McCrimmon in a letter to DOR Executive Director Lisa Vickers blasted both the tax specialist and the agency that employs her:
"For almost a decade, this convicted criminal has lived a lie, while being promoted time and time again to better and higher-paying jobs of trust and leadership, all the time betraying the trust of the citizens, taxpayers and voters of the state of Florida."
In a separate but potentially related development, state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, announced Friday that she has re-filed legislation to bolster the independence of inspector general offices.
Under SB 270, the state's chief inspector general would appoint agency inspectors, and agency directors would be barred from firing agency inspectors general.
The chief inspector general would report to the Cabinet, instead of solely to the governor.
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
Comments (100)
CAN'T WAIT FOR THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE TO GET INVOLVED.
Now for one word to the Tax-Payers of Florida. I am a taxpayer as well, I pay as much of my salary as you do. I have not had one dime of a cost of living raise in over 6 years, have you? I make no more money today than I did when I started here. Rick Scott took away 3%, 3% might not sound like much to you,but when you make nothing and cannot live from pay check to pay check without not having enough money to buy food, that is a big percentage. The only problem I have always had is that I am a good employee, I have work ethics, I am always on the job usually before a whole lot of you get out of the bed. I have been working since I was 12 years old, I have picked up cans, pine cones under cut down pine trees to sell the seed, cut wood to sell, picked up scrap metal, cut grass, cleaned toilets, etc. etc. But you know what, the one thing that I have never done, is take hand-outs. I have worked two jobs and if it were not for my health now, I would be still. Although, even though I have severe health problems that is the next thing to come.
So, now, you people out there that think that all State Employees are criminals and they get paid to much, let me know when you want to talk. I have so much that I could pass onto you all. When the Governor wants to get on TV and talk about the way he was brought up with nothing, put me beside him, I would love to explain to him what it is like using a wooden out-house or pumping water from a hand pump just to get a drink. Not knocking the way I was raised, I am very proud of it, it made me who I am today. Bring it on.
Back to the crooks on this site, you know who you are, I hope they bring you all out. Just remember as in most jobs, it all starts at the top.
The New Colossus I read it evry morning and it renewed my strength and determination to out this criminal, I had no idea the wrongs she has done to some many employees and I am hurt and sorry for your pain. However I ask you to help me get the word out to those who are the most betrayed and innocent the taxpayers and the voters of the State of Florida. Talk to them, email them and your friends the above link. Call your state reps and senators and Governor Rick Scott's office, be a voice for the rights of citizens, taxpayers and voters to know when their government is wrong. Thank you all, you are true patriots.
Fraud, lying on a state application, discrimination in hiring and promotion, possible theft/disclosure of tax payer information
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/libel
libel 1) n. to publish in print (including pictures), writing or broadcast through radio, television or film, an untruth about another which will do harm to that person or his/her reputation, by tending to bring the target into ridicule, hatred, scorn or contempt of others. Libel is the written or broadcast form of defamation, distinguished from slander which is oral defamation. It is a tort (civil wrong) making the person or entity (like a newspaper, magazine or political organization) open to a lawsuit for damages by the person who can prove the statement about him/her was a lie. Publication need only be to one person, but it must be a statement which claims to be fact, and is not clearly identified as an opinion. While it is sometimes said that the person making the libelous statement must have been intentional and malicious, actually it need only be obvious that the statement would do harm and is untrue. Proof of malice, however, does allow a party defamed to sue for "general damages" for damage to reputation, while an inadvertent libel limits the damages to actual harm (such as loss of business) called "special damages." "Libel per se" involves statements so vicious that malice is assumed and does not require a proof of intent to get an award of general damages. Libel against the reputation of a person who has died will allow surviving members of the family to bring an action for damages. Most states provide for a party defamed by a periodical to demand a published retraction. If the correction is made, then there is no right to file a lawsuit. Governmental bodies are supposedly immune for actions for libel on the basis that there could be no intent by a non-personal entity, and further, public records are exempt from claims of libel. However, there is at least one known case in which there was a financial settlement as well as a published correction when a state government newsletter incorrectly stated that a dentist had been disciplined for illegal conduct. The rules covering libel against a "public figure" (particularly a political or governmental person) are special, based on U. S. Supreme Court decisions. The key is that to uphold the right to express opinions or fair comment on public figures, the libel must be malicious to constitute grounds for a lawsuit for damages. Minor errors in reporting are not libel, such as saying Mrs. Jones was 55 when she was only 48, or getting an address or title incorrect. 2) v. to broadcast or publish a written defamatory statement. (See: defamation, slander, libel per se, public figure)
http://oas.state.fl.us/apps/cspec/www_cspec.cspec.display?p_plan=08&p_co...
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