Woman accused of elaborate ‘money laundering’ scheme involving COVID relief funds
Federal officials are investigating a former Maryland PTA president for allegedly embezzling over $900,000 to live a lavish coast-to-coast lifestyle that included luxury trips, gambling benders and Voodoo sex spells — including a curse to break up the marriage of her alleged lover.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland opened a criminal case against LaTonja Carrera, 51, who served as state PTA president from November 2020 to October 2022, according to D.C. attorney and former federal prosecutor Seth Waxman. The state organization oversaw about 800 local PTA chapters and 130,000 volunteer members. The investigation is looking at Carrera’s unauthorized spending of PTA funds from May 2020 through October 2022, Waxman said.
Waxman said federal investigators asked him last month to provide documents from a forensic audit he ordered as a court-appointed receiver of the Maryland PTA in 2022, when he took over to protect and preserve the organization’s assets. The Chicago accounting firm BDO USA conducted the audit. Waxman detailed the findings in a June 2023 lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court on behalf of the state PTA.
Waxman’s complaint joined a 2021 National PTA lawsuit against Carrera, the state PTA board, and the newly formed Alliance for Maryland Parents, Teachers and Students. In May 2020 the national office put the state PTA on probation over “significant leadership issues.” It revoked its charter in March 2021 for failing to comply with bylaws and national PTA standards and filed suit calling Carrera “a rogue” who “threatened and intimidated Local PTAs.” The case was sealed and settled in October 2024. The national PTA announced the formation of a new parent-teacher association, Free State PTA in March 2021...
...Janis Sartucci, an attorney and member of the watchdog group Parents Coalition of Montgomery County, said the lack of vetting is common for these positions.
“It’s been standard operating procedure that candidates for these positions are not vetted,” Sartucci said. “We don’t vet our board of education members.. It’s not something that we are concerned with, which obviously leads the public school system budget open to fraud, embezzlement and waste.”..
