The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., said that a former State Department budget analyst who worked for the Biden administration has admitted to stealing more than $650,000 from the agency over the course of two years.
Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, acknowledged to abusing her power to sign checks for a State Department checking account from March 2022 to April 2024. Ferrer, who lived in Maryland, was the department’s senior budget analyst in the Office of the Chief of Protocol.
Prosecutors alleged that Ferrer wrote 60 checks to herself and three payments to someone she was close to. The publication further said that she printed and signed each of the 63 cheques before putting them into her own bank accounts. Prosecutors say the checks added up to $657,347.50.
Ferrer, who is also known as Levita Brezovic, tried to hide the theft by using a QuickBooks account. Prosecutors said she typed her name into QuickBooks as the payee, printed the checks, and then put them in the bank.
Ferrer often changed the payee information in QuickBooks after writing the checks, switching it from her own name to that of a real State Department vendor. This made it hard for anyone looking at the system to figure out that she was the real beneficiary.
On Wednesday, she admitted to stealing government property and will be punished on September 18. The Post said that Ferrer may get up to 10 years in prison.
The article said that Ferrer has committed to pay back the full sum stolen to the U.S. government as part of her plea deal. She is also subject to a forfeiture money judgment for the same amount.
A bodyguard for Secretary of State Marco Rubio was arrested early last month for “acting strangely” at a hotel in Brussels and fighting with police officers in the Belgian city.
The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agent, who had been on the job for a long time, was handcuffed after getting angry when Hotel Amigo staff wouldn’t reopen the bar after hours.
Sources said that the bodyguard grew aggressive when hotel staff, including the night manager, tried to get him to go back to his room.
The New York Post said that the DSS agent then battled with the police after hotel management phoned them for help. This resulted to his detention.
Sources who talked to The Post said that the US Embassy in Brussels stepped in and got the agent out of jail later the same day.
Rubio stayed at the same hotel later that week when he went to Belgium for a conference of NATO leaders, although he was not there when the event is said to have happened.
DSS agents are in charge of keeping US diplomats and diplomatic buildings safe all around the world. They also look into crimes including passport and visa fraud.
A State Department official said that a lot of shift supervisors, including the agent who was arrested, are working too hard.
One source informed the Washington Examiner that “shift supervisors [on Rubio’s detail] have an incomprehensible workload.” “They are in charge of all the agents below them, making schedules, evaluations, and an insane amount of paperwork, as well as doing the actual shift work.”
“They work six or seven days a week.” “I really think this happened because of the agent’s incomprehensible stress, and at the very least, the DSS owes them a very fair evaluation of these circumstances as a whole,” the insider said.
A State Department spokeswoman told the Examiner, “The Diplomatic Security Service is aware of allegations of an incident involving an employee in Brussels, Belgium, on March 31, 2025.” “We can’t talk about specific personnel issues, but the claims are being looked into.”
Rubio is now one of President Trump’s most trusted advisers. Trump has also made him the acting administrator for USAID, the acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration, and the interim national security adviser.
