Date: March 5, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Rowena Joyce Scott, of Washington D.C., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for a scheme to steal and embezzle money from the non-profit corporation she was entrusted to run for the benefit of some of the District’s economically disadvantaged residents. Scott – a minister and the former head of the Ward 8 Democrats – was convicted following a June 2023 jury trial on charges of wire fraud, credit card fraud, filing false tax returns, and failing to file tax returns. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter, of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Washington D.C. Office, and Chief John Fowler of the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue Criminal Investigation Division. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Wilkins also ordered Scott to serve 24 months of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $153,432.04 to the Park Southern Neighborhood Corporation (PSNC) and $47,726 to the Internal Revenue Service. She also was ordered to forfeit a $153,432.04 criminal money judgment. From January 2010 through May 2014, Scott served as the president of the board of directors and manager of PSNC, a non-profit, non-member corporation that owned and operated the Park Southern apartment complex in Southeast Washington, D.C. According to the government’s evidence, Scott was hired to serve PSNC’s charitable mission of providing adequate, safe, affordable housing for the District’s underhoused and underprivileged residents. Instead, Scott engaged in a scheme through which she embezzled at least $125,000 from the organization’s coffers and used nearly $30,000 in additional funds to make purely personal, unauthorized purchases from third-party vendors. All the while, Scott collected $260,000 in “salary” (about $60,000 per year), lived in the building rent-free, and used the property’s common rooms, free of charge, to operate her own ministry. Scott failed to report all of the income she received from PSNC – legitimate or otherwise – for tax purposes. Meanwhile, under her watch, PSNC failed to finish renovations for Americans-with- Disabilities-Act compliant units and failed to make loan payments to the District. This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation, the DC Office of Tax and Revenue, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Lallas. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Kelly and Diane Lucas, and Paralegal Specialist Sona Chaturvedi.
