An Olympia man has admitted to defrauding the State of Washington of nearly $900,000, a costly deception that lasted for years. Matthew Randall Ping, 48, pled guilty to wire fraud and making a false tax return, accepting his fate before U.S. District Court in Tacoma, according to a Justice Department announcement on Monday. A sentence is expected to be handed down later this year on September 9th, as meted out by U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright.
Ping’s time with the Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings began in 2009, climbing the ranks to a Management Analyst role and overseeing departmental credit card transactions. From 2019 through 2023, he crafted an intricate scheme to siphon state funds, racking up $878,115 through various deceptive maneuvers. According to documents in the case, Ping set up accounts with payment processors, assigning names that mimicked legitimate business vendors, deceptively directing over $330,000 to these accounts within the first two years of his scheme.
The former state employee’s method was further detailed in the plea agreement. Ping colluded with the state’s financial infrastructure, charging personal items from retailers such as Verizon and Walmart totaling $17,359 on the state’s dime. His tactics to evade detection involved submitting incomplete transaction records for review by co-workers and subsequently manipulating the accounting data. After the review, he would upload and approve his own transactions sans the requisite oversight…