Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Montgomery Village, Maryland, admitted in federal court Wednesday to stealing more than $650,000 from the U.S. State Department over a two-year period.
Ferrer, also known as Levita Brezovic, pleaded guilty to theft of government property before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.
In her plea, Ferrer confessed to abusing her signature authority over a State Department checking account while employed as a Senior Budget Analyst in the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol between March 2022 and April 2024.
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She admitted to issuing 60 checks made out to herself and three checks payable to an individual with whom she had a personal relationship. Ferrer printed and signed all 63 checks, totaling $657,347.50, and subsequently deposited the funds into her personal checking and savings accounts.
To conceal her activity, Ferrer utilized a common Quickbooks account within the State Department. After initially entering her name as the payee on checks in the system and printing them, she frequently altered the payee information in Quickbooks to reflect legitimate State Department vendors.
This ensured that a casual review of the Quickbooks entries would not reveal Ferrer as the recipient of the funds, requiring access to an audit trail to uncover the fraud.
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Judge Cooper accepted Ferrer’s guilty plea and scheduled her sentencing hearing for September 18, 2025. Ferrer faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The court will determine the final sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other relevant statutory factors.
As part of her plea agreement, Ferrer has agreed to pay full restitution of $657,347.50 to the U.S. government. She also agreed to be liable for a forfeiture money judgment in the same amount.
U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. announced the guilty plea for the District of Columbia, Special Agent in Charge Benjamin Brockschmidt of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Inspector General, and Deputy Assistant Director William Ferrari of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service Office of Special Investigations.
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