Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on hostage applications.
Federal investigators allege that Mosby, 41, used money from COVID-related loans to buy two vacation homes in Florida. They say the Democrat under penalty of perjury falsely claimed he experienced adverse financial consequences from the pandemic by withdrawing money from his city retirement account under relaxed restrictions.
Typically, those 457(b) plans, which are exclusive to state and local employees, cannot be touched until an employee leaves their job. The 2020 CARES Act allowed Baltimore City employees to make withdrawals from this type of retirement account if the pandemic affected their income.
According to the charging documents, Mosby requested a one-time withdrawal of $40,000 from his city retirement account in May 2020, under penalty of perjury, falsely certifying that he experienced financial hardship as a result of "quarantine, leave or closure." Was. Reduced working hours," "Being unable to work because of a lack of child care" or "Closing the reduction of business hours that I operate or operate."
In fact, her 2020 salary was around $248,000 and was unaffected by the pandemic. "Instead of experiencing a decrease in income in 2020, Mosby's gross salary in 2020 exceeded his gross salary in 2019, which was $238,772.04," the charge documents say.
Mosby received $36,000 in withdrawal money and put it toward a down payment for a vacation home in Kissimmee, Fla. The indictment alleges that he lied to lower the mortgage interest rate: He allegedly told lenders that it would serve as a second home, but a week earlier had to list the property for short-term rental. An agreement was signed with the holiday home management company.
Mosby allegedly lied about tax liabilities to mortgage lenders. The IRS filed a $45,022 lien against her for unpaid taxes in March 2020, but she did not disclose in the September 2020 application that she owed significant amounts of federal taxes nor was she delinquent.
She bought the Kissimmee home in September 2020 for a total of $545,000. It served as a rental property until he sold it in November 2021 at a profit of $150,000.
Prosecutors say months later, he used another COVID-related loan to pay for another vacation home.
In December 2020, she again requested a one-time withdrawal of $50,000 from her city retirement account, citing the relaxed CARES Act withdrawal restrictions.
He received $45,000 and put it toward a condominium, another vacation home in Longboat Key, Fla. In her mortgage application, Mosby again failed to tell lenders that she was delinquent in federal taxes. He bought the condo in February 2021 for $476,000.
The count of perjury carries a maximum of five years in person; The count of making a false statement on a loan application carries a maximum prison term of 30 years.
Mosby and his lawyer A. Scott Bolden did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bolden told the Baltimore Sun that federal prosecutors have a personal hatred for Mosby.
“We will vigorously fight these allegations, and I am confident that once all the evidence is presented, she will win against these bogus allegations – allegations that have fueled personal, political and racial enmity – five months after her election.” are contained," he said. newspaper in a statement.
She and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby, have been under federal investigation since at least February 2021, when the FBI issued summons tied to their financial records.
The investigation began after Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming investigated the city of her visit. Mosby himself requested an investigation after he was criticized for failing to cover travel paid for by third parties such as nonprofits with Baltimore's spending board. Cummings' OIG report vindicated him, but City Solicitor Jim Shea, in a legal opinion, said the city's policy on third-party travel funding was unclear.
Mosbys' aides have since criticized the OIG and federal investigation into the couple.
Mosby was selected as Baltimore's top prosecutor in 2014. She accused police officers of the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, expanding her national profile as a self-described progressive prosecutor; Those charges were dropped in 2016.
The Democrat was re-elected in 2018 for a second term. He is up for re-election in this cycle.