Virginia Man Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding D.C. Non-Profit Organization of Over $438,000

WASHINGTON—A 63-year-old Virginia man, Earl Staubs, has been sentenced to prison following his prior guilty plea to a charge of mail fraud for his involvement in a scheme to divert money from a private, non-profit organization’s bank account in Washington, D.C., for his own personal use, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, announced today.

Staubs, most recently of Arlington, Virginia, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Friedman sentenced Staubs to 30 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $413,098 to the non-profit organization.

According to the government’s evidence, between March 1997 and April 206, Staubs was the Director of Financial Services for a private, non-profit organization which did business in the District of Columbia. The organization worked to improve communication through better understanding of language and culture.

In March of 2005, Staubs opened a bank account with Riggs Bank (which subsequently became PNC Bank) on behalf of the non-profit organization. In his position, Staubs improperly directed funds from checks belonging to the organization into the Riggs bank account in “off the book” transactions. Staubs used a check endorser from the desk of another organization employee to endorse and deposit the checks at a branch in Washington, D.C. Staubs crossed out the operating account number stamped on the back of the checks he deposited and wrote in the Riggs or PNC account number. Staubs was the only person associated with the organization who had access to the bank account and he had the bank statement for the account mailed to him.

Shortly after opening the bank account, Staubs, without authorization, began using funds from the bank account for his personal use. Staubs accessed this money by writing checks on the account or using a bank-issued debit/credit card. Staubs continued to misappropriate funds from the Riggs bank account until about April of 2006.

In February of 2006, in an effort to conceal his unauthorized use of these funds, Staubs altered the mailing address for the bank statements for the bank account so that the bank statements were sent to his home address in Virginia. As a result of Staubs’s actions, the organization suffered losses of approximately $438,098. Staubs admitted in court that he spent a large amount of this money in activities associated with strip clubs in Washington, D.C.

Staubs is currently serving a state prison sentence in Virginia of seven years for a separate embezzlement scheme against his elderly mother for whom he had power of attorney. Judge Friedman directed that half of Staubs’s sentence in this case will run concurrent with that sentence, while the other half will run consecutive to it.

In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini praised the hard work of the investigative agents involved in this matter. They also acknowledged the efforts of Legal Assistant Lisa Robinson, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Butler, who handled this prosecution.