Former State Department analyst pleads guilty to embezzling more than $650K

A former State Department budget analyst has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year span, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC.Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Maryland, admitted to abusing her signature authority over a State Department checking account between March 2022 and April 2024 in her capacity as a senior budget analyst in the department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.She wrote 60 checks to herself and three checks to someone else she had a personal relationship with, prosecutors said.She printed and signed each check before depositing all 63 checks into her personal bank accounts.The checks totaled $657,347.50, according to prosecutors.Ferrer, also known as Levita Brezovic, attempted to hide the scheme through the use of a Quickbooks account.She would enter her name as the payee on checks in Quickbooks and print them, prosecutors said.She would often then change the listed payee in Quickbooks from herself to a legitimate State Department vendor, making it difficult for anyone viewing those entries in the Quickbooks system to see Ferrer as the payee on the checks.Ferrer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to theft of government property and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept.18.She could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.As part of her plea agreement, Ferrer agreed to pay the stolen amount in restitution to the US government and be liable for a forfeiture money judgment in that same amount....