A former White House scientist was scammed out of $655,000. Then came the IRS.

The government that Frances Sharples served for more than four decades considers the money to be income, compounding her pain

By Michael Laris
December 14, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST



Frances Sharples, a longtime National Academy of Sciences leader who served as a technology adviser in the Clinton White House, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to scammers. It started with a warning that her identity had been stolen. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)

Frances Sharples walked through the glass doors of her credit union, ready to make the worst decision of her life. ... She had a script from the man promising to save the retirement account she built over decades as a science adviser to the U.S. government, including in the White House. ... He told her to transfer more than $600,000 — and to keep her cellphone on so he could listen to her. If anyone asked whether she was put up to it, she was to reply: “No, absolutely not,” according to her hand-scrawled notes. No one did. She handed the clerk the routing number, walked back to her dented 2005 Honda and returned home. ... “Now I’m good,” she told herself. “Now, I’m safe.”

The doctorate daughter of a plumber from Queens had made a life advising the federal government on stem cells, new energy technologies and the effects of biological weapons. Despite a history of meticulousness, Sharples was victimized by a global network of online criminals, including a man with a gentle Indian accent who helped make off with much of her life savings.

[ How Congress leaned on crime victims to pay for Trump-era tax cuts ]

The government she served for more than four decades is compounding her pain. The Internal Revenue Service told Sharples, 73, she had to pay hefty taxes on the stolen money, which the federal government considers income. Tax specialists said someone in Sharples’s position could face a six-figure bill.

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‘It’s my idea’

With Sharples’s regular savings account wiped out, the criminals eyed a bigger prize: her retirement account. ... She had been setting aside money for decades, including in a tax-deferred account. Billings told her to cash it out and transfer the money to her credit union. ... At that point, a precaution set up to backstop bad customer decisions kicked in. After Sharples asked TIAA — which managed the retirement account — to transfer her money, a senior fraud investigator with the company called to question her decision. ... “Is someone else telling you to do this?” he asked. ... “No, it’s my idea,” she said, following the script. “I’ve decided I want to invest in a different way.”



The script Sharples followed. She scratched out “$25,000” and wrote in “$630,000” in preparation for her next transfer. (Frances Sharples)

TIAA did what Sharples asked. ... That had big tax consequences. As required, TIAA set aside withholdings to cover federal and state taxes. Then it transferred the remaining $630,000 to her credit union. ... With those hurdles cleared, the script and procedure at her credit union would be the same as the first time she transferred money.

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Story editing by Tim Richardson. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Copy editing by Mike Cirelli. Design by Jennifer C. Reed.

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By Michael Laris
Michael Laris writes about the transformation of the U.S. transportation system. He has covered government accountability and was a reporter in Beijing. Twitter https://twitter.com/mikelaris