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…
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