VA Woman Sentenced For Defrauding $834K From DC Government

WASHINGTON, DC — A former D.C. government employee was sentenced last week to defrauding the District's Department of Disability Services out of more than $880,000, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.

Eugenia Rapp, 51, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was sentenced on Nov. 24 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to serve one year and a day in prison. She had pleaded guilty in June 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Rapp worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor from about 2008 through December 2016 with the District's Department of Disability Services, Rehabilitation Services Administration (DCRSA). The agency provides rehabilitation benefits, such as college tuition, to qualified individuals with disabilities to help them prepare and find gainful employment.

Rapp conspired from 2012 through 2016 to defraud the D.C. government by helping individuals receive benefits for which they were not eligible, according to court documents. Despite government policy regarding conflicts of interest, Rapp helped individuals she described as being related to her to receive benefits. Rapp was aware these individuals were not eligible for the benefits, but she made sure she was assigned as their vocational rehabilitation counselor. This allowed her to process and approve their applications. She also altered lease agreements and instructed individuals to obtain D.C. identification cards to receive benefits even though they were not residents of the District. As a result of these actions, the D.C. government awarded approximately $834,536 in vocational rehabilitation benefits to Rapp's friends and family.

Rapp also awarded fraudulent vocational rehabilitation benefits to five others whom she did not have a relationship with in order to help them attend a nursing school in Florida, according to court documents. Rapp helped the students, who were not D.C. residents, receive $47,895 in benefits, in exchange for one of her family members receiving a full scholarship to attend the school.

In December 2019, Cleophat Tanis, the president of the nursing school, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud as part of Rapp's scheme.

Judge Trevor N. McFadden sentenced Tanis to one month of imprisonment and seven months of home detention for his role in the scheme. Tanis also had to pay $47,895 in restitution.

McFadden sentenced Rapp on Nov. 24 to one year and one day of imprisonment to be followed by one year of supervised release. She was also order to pay restitution in the amount of $882,491.