The former top prosecutor for the city of Baltimore was found guilty of two counts of perjury related to a falsified COVID-19 application in which she fraudulently claimed she was experiencing some financial trouble during the pandemic.
Now, Marilyn Mosby faces up to 10 years in prison for the crime.
It only took seven hours for a jury to convict Mosby after evidence revealed she lied about her financial standing to withdraw money early from a retirement account that she used to purchase two vacation homes in Florida, The Baltimore Banner reports.
Federal prosecutors asserted she lied twice on a form in 2020 about experiencing an “adverse financial consequence” to take advantage of a provision of the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, otherwise known as the CARES Act, to withdraw $90,000 from a retirement account that she otherwise would not have been able to access. On that application, Mosby checked a box certifying under penalty of perjury that a business she owned and operated either closed or experienced a reduction of hours due to the pandemic.
After that application was approved, she went on to use the money she withdrew to buy a home in Kissimmee, Florida, as well as a condo in Longboat Key, Florida.
Her lawyers argued against these findings. Instead, they painted Mosby as someone who lost out on starting a side business due to pandemic, so her hardship fit eligibility requirements under the CARES Act that were a bit hazy when it came to the matter of withdrawing money.
They maintained that Mosby started a travel company, Mahogany Elite Enterprises, prior to the pandemic and spent money registering it with the state, obtaining a domain name, and going on trips as research, The Banner reported. Prosecutors said Mahogany Elite didn’t qualify her because it had no clients and never brought in any revenue.
Mosby also publicly stated at one point that she had no plans to run the business while acting as the state’s attorney, and in January 2020, she stated under penalty of perjury that she had no business interests on financial disclosure forms.
She was never furloughed during the pandemic and continued to earn her $250,000 yearly salary, so prosecutors noted that as a point to diminish her defense’s claims of hardship.
“I’m blessed. I’m blessed. I have nothing else today,” Mosby told reporters as she left the courthouse. She and her attorneys declined to comment further on the conviction.
Mosby first took office in 2015 and received some national name recognition in her first year on the job after she charged six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. Her popularity earned her a second term in 2018.
After she was indicted in January 2022, she disputed the perjury charges and claimed they were filed for politically and racially motivated reasons. Though she and her attorneys were barred from making such arguments in court, her legal team stated that her case was the only one of its type in the country. They said they were unable to find an instance of anyone else being criminally charged for wrongly accessing retirement funds during the pandemic.
In a statement, Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek Barron said: “We respect the jury’s verdict and remain steadfastly committed to our mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, protect the civil rights of all Americans, and safeguard public property.”
Mosby faces five years each for each of the perjury counts she was convicted on and is awaiting a sentencing date.
In a separate pending federal case, Mosby faces two counts of making false mortgage applications directly connected to purchasing those two vacation homes in Florida. Prosecutors allege she never disclosed her tax debt and claimed that her Kissimmee home was a second home, even though evidence shows she planned to operate it as a rental home. Filing that property as a home allowed her to secure a lower interest rate, which defrauded mortgage lenders, prosecutors say.
A trial date hasn’t been set yet for that case. She could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of those counts.
Trending Now:
- Alabama Couple Charged for Allegedly Operating Multimillion-Dollar Pyramid Scheme Targeting Black People In the Name of the Lord
- Interracial Dating Podcast Host Sentenced to Five Years In Federal Prison After Stalking, Threatening Black Women Who Didn’t Want to Date Him
- White Driver Who Crashes Bentley Shows How Privileged She Is By Defying Florida Cops Who Give Her Free Range to Resist
Never miss a story — sign up for ATLANTA BLACK STAR’S free daily newsletters to stay up-to-date on the latest developments, from top news headlines to celebrity news.
