BALTIMORE — Former Chief of Staff for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Roy McGrath, is now facing a new charge in addition to those he was facing previously.
The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that the 52-year-old from Naples, Florida would be charged for the falsification of records to the previous federal charges of wire fraud and theft in programs receiving federal funds.
McGrath was initially accused of defrauding a state agency he led by inducing it to pay him nearly $280,000 in mostly severance pay before he moved to his post in the governor’s office. He allegedly committed both wiretapping and fraud during his time at Maryland Environmental Services and was found to be abusing his position while he was the Director of the Maryland Environmental Service, according to Maryland General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel Oversight.
Officials claim McGrath knowingly falsified a document that falsely appeared to be a memorandum to the Governor of Maryland. The allegedly false memorandum used a blue check mark, as characteristically used by the Governor of Maryland, in the "approved" box. This gave the illusion that Hogan had seen and approved the memorandum, which was backdated to May 18, 2020, a date that reportedly coincides with the day McGrath interviewed to become the Chief of Staff.
McGrath is accused of lying to the MES Board that Hogan was aware of and consented to the severance payment.
McGrath also faces pending charges for allegedly illegally recording private conversations involving senior state officials without their consent while he was employed at MES and as the Governor's Chief of Staff.
If convicted of the federal charges, McGrath faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the five counts of wire fraud, a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each of the two counts of embezzling funds from an organization receiving more than $10,000 in federal benefits, and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for the charge of falsifying a document.
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