Bank Accounts

A civilian employee of the U.S. Navy who for years sold government scrap metal from Naval installations for a personal profit was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 30 months in prison for the scheme, according to U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. Christopher M. Hill, 47, of Lusby, who handled recycling and scraps for the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and other military installations, was also ordered by Chief U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to pay more than $630,000 in restitution to the Navy and almost $135,000 in restitution to the IRS. According to a plea agreement in the case, a private contractor collected scrap metal owned by the government — but Hill had the firm submit payments for those scraps directly to him. Between 2004 and 2010, Hill deposited 124 checks from the company into his personal bank accounts, and did not report the earnings to the IRS. In a statement, Robert Craig, special agent in charge for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, one of the agencies involved in the investigation, said Hill's arrest shows those agencies and Rosenstein's office "will doggedly investigate and prosecute those that decide to break the rules — or make-up their own rules — to steal and cheat from the Department of Defense.

We think we know what Peter Franchot will be next year for Halloween. Just a guess, but Maryland's Comptroller seems to have a bit of an Indiana Jones fantasy -- one that he lived out Sunday morning in a weighty special section delivered with The Baltimore Sun. The 184-page publication features a grinning Franchot on the cover, trying to look as Harrison Ford-y as possible. There's the Indiana Jones whip in one hand, what looks to be an artificact in the other and atop his head, of course, is the archeologist's signature fedora.

So the tax deadline is here and you don't have the money to pay the bill. It's time to act, not panic. You might have more options than you know — courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service. The agency has been easing up on financially strapped taxpayers and last month expanded its "Fresh Start" initiative, which allows some jobless workers to put off paying their taxes for six months without paying a stiff penalty. "There are probably more options than most people are aware of," says Abe Schneier, senior technical manager with the American Institute of CPAs.

A Bulgarian citizen, who was involved in an international conspiracy to skim debit and credit card information from bank and other ATMs, including at least one in Bel Air early last year, was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison by a judge in Baltimore Federal District Court Friday. In addition to receiving a prison term, Hristo Georgive Kostov, 29, who had been living in Howard County, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake.

Maryland officials said on Friday that they had seized $400,000 in overdue child support payments from one parent, the largest such collection state history. "I hope that this collection sends a clear message to non-custodial parents that Maryland is committed to collecting the support that is due to our children," said a statement from Ted Dallas, the secretary of the Department of Human Resources. The agency is charged with collecting child-support payments and has investigators with the Child Support Enforcement Administration.

Columnist Marta Mossburg's latest screed against the governor and legislative leaders is creative and thought-provoking but ultimately disingenuous ("The gospel according to O'Malley," Jan. 18). People who work hard in a capitalist society are entitled to be wealthy, but they are not entitled to be greedy. The real agenda of Ms. Mossburg and her ilk is to keep all their money. If they can paint those who seek to improve society rather than their own bank accounts as tax-hungry tyrants, they stand a good chance of not having to pay their fair share.

Maryland has a new child support enforcement director, a hire that comes about three months after the office was skewered in a legislative audit that said it failed to collect more than $1.7 billion in support over three years. Taking over the Child Support Enforcement Administration is Joseph J. DiPrimio, who ran Philadelphia's Family Court operations, including its child support enforcement programs, and is a retired court administrator of that city's courts. Secretary of Human Resources Ted Dallas said he brought in a new executive director in a push to take the state's child support enforcement from its middling position nationwide into the top 10 states within 18 months.

It will be three years before ballots are cast in Maryland's next election for governor, but half a dozen potential candidates for the office are already asking donors for cash. At one of the latest fundraising events, Democratic Howard County Executive Ken Ulman was the main attraction and guests paid up to $1,000 each to attend the party in Columbia last week. The invitation, sent by a supporter, stated that Ulman would need the money for "the upcoming gubernatorial election. " Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, all Democrats, have held events in recent months.

Maryland's attorney general alleged Wednesday that a Baltimore man had defrauded investors of nearly $500,000 and ordered him to stop selling securities and acting as an investment advisor, activities for which he was not registered. Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler is seeking fines and a permanent ban from the securities industry for Casey Charles and his company, Infinite Equity Strategies LLC. In a cease-and-desist order, the state accused Charles of transferring retirement funds of investors to an out-of-state company, which later transferred the money to his own bank accounts.