The former head of the Maryland Center for Adult Training, founded by former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for tax fraud, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Roslyn Wedington pursuant to a plea deal. The 50-year-old from Rosedale pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and five counts of filing false tax returns. Chasnow also ordered Wedington to pay $121,592.50 in restitution.
“Roslyn Wedington went to great lengths to avoid paying the taxes she owed,” Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner said in a statement. “When criminals cheat the IRS, they are also stealing from all of us as taxpayers. As we head into tax season, let Ms. Wedington’s case and prison sentence be reminders to everyone about the consequences of tax fraud.”
Wedington worked at MCAT from 2009 to 2019, joining as their student coordinator and becoming the nonprofit’s executive director in 2012. The organization provides training and certification for health care jobs.
In 2015, longtime Pugh aide Gary Brown Jr. became chair of MCAT’s board of directors and obtained signatory authority on its bank account.
Wedington admitted that she conspired with Brown to avoid tax withholdings from her paychecks. In 2013, after her salary was garnished for outstanding student loan debt and medical bills, she asked Brown to take her off the organization’s payroll records. Instead, they had an arrangement where MCAT would make electronic deposits into his personal bank account in an amount that exceeded Wedington’s salary, creating the pretense that he was doing work for MCAT as a contractor. Brown then gave Wedington checks or cash equal to or greater than her salary of more than $80,000.
Wedington admitted she paid Brown a small fee to prepare fraudulent tax returns for tax years 2013 through 2017. The returns did not list her work income and made a number of other false entries, resulting in refunds to which she was not entitled.
“Roslyn Wedington tried to cheat the government and was caught,” said Jennifer C. Boone, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Baltimore field office. “People who file fraudulent tax returns are committing a crime and, as the sentence today shows, risking serious jail time. The FBI and our law enforcement partners are committed to rooting out violations of the law.”
In 2019, federal investigators raided MCAT, Pugh’s homes, Brown’s home and Pugh’s City Hall offices. Pugh is serving a three-year sentence for conspiracy and tax evasion connected to sales of her “Healthy Holly” books. Brown is serving a 27-month sentence for conspiracy and filing a false tax return.
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