On February 13, 2020, in the District of New Jersey, Vire McCants pled guilty, and sentencing was held on the charge of theft of U.S. property for embezzling and knowingly converting to her own use money of an agency of the United States, specifically, paid leave payments received from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to which she was not entitled. McCants was charged for the offense in November 2019.

According to the court documents, McCants was employed as an IRS revenue officer. Between on or about March 6, 2019 and on or about June 8, 2019, on every Wednesday she did not appear for work as scheduled. McCants told her IRS supervisors that she had been selected for grand jury duty. In support of that claim, McCants submitted weekly forms, purportedly signed by the grand jury coordinator. These forms purported to certify that McCants had appeared for grand jury service on each Wednesday during the relevant period. Although McCants was called for grand jury duty, she was not selected as a grand juror and did not appear again for grand jury. McCants was paid by the IRS for each of the days that she submitted time entries for administrative leave, based on her fraudulent claims of grand jury duty obligations. As a result, McCants fraudulently received compensation from the IRS to which she was not entitled for each of those days.

McCants was sentenced to one year of probation. She was further ordered to pay $4,132.33 in restitution to the IRS and a special assessment fee of $25.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: D.N.J. Crim. Complaint filed Nov. 13, 2019; D.N.J. Minutes of Proceedings filed Feb. 13, 2020; and D.N.J. Judgment filed Feb. 14, 2020.