Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Guilty on Two Perjury Counts

Marilyn Mosby, the former Maryland State’s Attorney for the City of Baltimore, was found guilty of perjury charges Thursday after a brief three-day trial.

The jury deliberated for a little under eight hours.

Mosby was accused of falsely certifying—twice—that she qualified under the CARES Act to make early withdrawals from her IRC 457(b) City of Baltimore deferred compensation plan.

She claimed that she’d experienced “adverse financial consequences” due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At trial, her lawyers argued that she reasonably believed that she qualified for the exception because a travel business she founded in 2019 had been “devastated” by the virus.

But according to prosecutors, Mosby had a gross salary of $247,955 and suffered no loss of income. Rather, she needed the money to purchase two vacation homes in Florida.

The first distribution request, which was for $40,000, was made on May 26, 2020. The second request, this time for $50,000, was made on December 29, 2020.

Mosby had publicly represented in July 2020 that her businesses—held under a company called Mahogany Elite Enterprises LLC—were not yet operational.

Although Mosby claimed tax deductions for business-related expenses—related to start-up—in 2019 and 2020, the businesses didn’t have any clients and had generated no revenue.

In the prosecution’s view, that meant her travel business couldn’t have been affected by the pandemic.

Operational Status

Mosby initially failed to list the companies on a Financial Disclosure Statement provided to the Maryland State Ethics Commission on January 30, 2020, but filed an amended disclosure on July 2, 2020.

In September 2020, she filed a request for review of secondary employment, describing Mahogany Elite as a holding company with two subsidiaries: Mahogany Elite Travel LLC and Mahogany Elite Consulting LLC.

She said she expected the job of overseeing the companies to be “permanent” and anticipated spending 1-2 hours each week on the side gig.

The defense called Lindsay “Zy” Richardson, then the communications director for the Office of State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, to explain that Mosby had been counseled to issue a statement saying she wouldn’t operate the businesses while in office.

The businesses were bad politics, according to Richardson.

Mosby was elected as State’s Attorney for Baltimore City in 2014 and served from January 2015 until early 2023. She ran for reelection—for what would have been her third term—but lost the Democratic primary in July 2022 to Ivan Bates.

The long-time public servant still faces two counts of making false statements on loan applications made in connection with the purchase of the Florida homes. Among other things, prosecutors say she lied to lenders about tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding federal tax liabilities.

Those charges were severed, at the request of Mosby’s counsel, from the perjury charges in September.

Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby presided over the trial.

Mosby is represented by federal public defenders in Baltimore with pro bono counsel Lucius Outlaw III in Washington, D.C.

The case is United States v. Mosby, D. Md., No. 1:22-cr-00007, 11/9/23.