Metro News Release

For immediate release: April 23, 2008

Woman pleads guilty to wire fraud in theft following Metro Transit Police investigation

A Metro employee who was fired last year after it was discovered that she was stealing cash pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today, April 23.

A Metro Transit Police investigation determined that Silver Spring, MD, resident Marcia Anderson, a former Metro supervisor who oversaw the activities of 10 to 15 transit sales clerks for about five years, was exchanging Metrocheks for cash, forging end-of-day balance sheets, and taking the money. Metrocheks are farecards that employers provide to their employees as a transit commuter benefit.

Anderson’s job was to reconcile the daily sales transactions for several sales clerks who sold fare media such as fare cards, bus tokens, SmarTrip cards and passes. Instead, Transit Police determined that she altered paperwork to cover her crimes and pocketed the money. She stole approximately $560,000, and as part of the guilty plea, she agreed to pay restitution to Metro. The Court will sentence Ms. Anderson in early August.

Anderson worked at Metro from October 1998 to October 2007. She was a sales supervisor from January 2002 until she was fired in October 2007.

Transit Police worked closely with the Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Office on the case to gather documents related to the employee’s pattern of theft, issue subpoenas for personal records and execute search warrants to obtain and seize evidence.

News release issued at 12:29 pm, April 23, 2008.