Maxine Marie Williams, Embezzlement, District of Columbia 2024

WASHINGTON – Maxine Marie Williams, 49, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in prison for attempting to steal more than $200,000 from two former employers, both non-profit organizations in the District of Columbia.

The sentence was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Daniel A. Adame, U.S Postal Inspector in Charge for the Washington Division, and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Williams worked for one non-profit organization from approximately 2015 through March 2018. Her job responsibilities included processing donation checks that were mailed to the office, and preparing and mailing checks to vendors, service providers, and individuals. According to the government’s evidence, from November 2015 through March 2018, she stole 171 checks totaling $161,084.23 from the organization.

Of the $161,084.23 in stolen checks, more than $140,000 was successfully deposited into accounts associated with Williams, including a $5,000 donor check that Williams deposited at an ATM in Hyattsville, Md. After Williams was terminated from the first organization in March 2018, she secured employment with the second organization, a non-profit trade association headquartered in Washington.

Between December 2018 and June 2019, according to the government’s evidence, Williams stole 33 checks totaling $43,398.93 from the second organization. She successfully deposited more than $38,000 into her bank account. Williams pled guilty in April 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

In addition to sentencing Williams to prison, Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered that she pay $179,500.57 in restitution and be liable for a forfeiture money judgment in the same amount. The court also commended the work of those who investigated the case from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Metropolitan Police Department.

Williams will serve her sentence in a federal prison. The sentencing marks the culmination of a lengthy investigation into the thefts, which were carried out over several years. The case serves as a reminder of the importance of vigilance in the non-profit sector, where the stakes can be high and the consequences of theft can be severe.

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