In a scandal that lays bare yet another layer of rot within the bloated federal bureaucracy, a former senior budget analyst at the State Department has admitted to stealing more than $657,000 in taxpayer funds over a two-year period—an act of egregious fraud carried out during a time when everyday Americans were tightening their belts under the weight of soaring inflation and unchecked government spending.
Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, a trusted analyst within the Office of the Chief of Protocol, pled guilty to a methodical embezzlement scheme that unfolded between March 2022 and April 2024.
While the American public endured higher taxes, rising grocery bills, and spiking fuel prices under the Biden administration’s economic mismanagement, Ferrer was quietly siphoning off federal funds—leveraging her signature authority over a State Department checking account to enrich herself.
The scheme was deceptively simple, yet stunning in its scale. Ferrer used QuickBooks accounting software to disguise the fraud. She would initially list herself as the payee, print the checks, and then manipulate the records by reassigning those payments to legitimate vendors—burying her tracks in the software unless someone dug into the audit trail.
In total, she wrote 60 checks to herself and three more to an individual with whom she had a personal relationship, depositing them into her own account.
Her actions weren’t just fraudulent—they were predatory, exploiting a high-trust position in one of the most sensitive arms of government. And while the dollar amount is eye-popping, what it represents is far more corrosive: a culture of complacency and insufficient oversight inside sprawling government institutions.
Now, with a guilty plea in hand, Ferrer faces up to 10 years in prison and has agreed to repay every dollar she stole, along with accepting a forfeiture judgment. Her sentencing is scheduled for September 18.
But the real question is: How many more Ferrers are out there? How many federal employees, buried in line items and bureaucracy, see opportunity in a system that’s grown too large to monitor itself?
The public shouldn’t just be angry with Ferrer—they should be demanding answers from the layers of government that allowed this to happen under their watch. For an administration that promised transparency and competence, the very departments tasked with upholding public trust seem increasingly riddled with abuse, waste, and incompetence.
