BREAKING: A 43-year-old Beaumont woman has been sentenced for her part in a conspiracy targeting federal inmates and their families in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown today.
Tanya L. Richard pleaded guilty on June 14, 2018, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone. Richard was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $166,250.
According to information presented in court, while employed as an administrative employee of the Federal Correctional Complex in Beaumont, Richard was involved in a wide-spread fraud scheme targeting the families of federal inmates. Six persons, some of whom were former federal inmates, pleaded guilty to a similar charge last year in the same scheme and are currently serving federal prison sentences for their involvement.
The nationwide, six-year scheme defrauded the relatives of federal inmates by falsely representing that they could obtain reductions in their relatives’ sentences in exchange for the payment of cash and wire transfers of funds. The payments were falsely represented to be for the payment for a network of confidential informants who would make undercover drug transactions under the direction of the courts and prosecutors which would allow the incarcerated inmates to ask the court for reductions of sentences for providing substantial assistance to the government under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
In reality, the money was spent for the personal benefit of the defendants and there was never any network of informants or undercover transactions. Federal inmates do not have to pay for substantial assistance motions for reductions of sentences which normally only require information to be provided by such inmates against co-defendants as well as trial testimony.
Richard’s role in the scheme included obtaining confidential information from federal court presentence reports of inmates and drafting false cooperation agreements for inmate families that appeared to be from federal prosecutors and U.S. Attorneys. Richard is a former common-law spouse of Alvin James Warrick who pleaded guilty to a similar charge in the scheme last year. The scheme resulted in losses to inmate families from across the nation of over $4 million dollars.
“This kind of fraud threatens the public’s trust in the justice system,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown. “The defendant targeted individuals and families who were vulnerable, and violated the trust that had been placed in her as a public servant. It was important that there be a real consequence for that.”
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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