A Mathews woman pleaded guilty last week to defrauding the federal government of over $1.4 million in a long-running time and attendance fraud scheme.

According to federal court documents, Michelle M. Holt, 52, was previously a federal employee for the U.S. Department of Defense. She worked as a secretary for the U.S. Air Force at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.

In that capacity, Holt was a salaried employee on the General Schedule (GS) grade for the federal civilian workforce and was entitled to overtime pay if authorized by her employer. She was also entitled to other forms of holiday and annual leave, as well as premium pay for any federal holidays worked. 

A law enforcement investigation determined that from 2001 to 2018, Holt falsely claimed over 42,000 hours in unauthorized overtime that she did not work, as well as other amounts of unauthorized holiday leave, sick leave and annual leave, all amounting to losses to the United States of $1,460,262.43. 

In recent years, Ho...