School president who defrauded D.C. government pleads guilty to mail fraud
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Version 0 of 1. A nursing school president who conspired with a D.C. employee to defraud the D.C. government pleaded guilty to mail fraud Monday, prosecutors said. From 2012 to 2016, 50-year-old Eugenia Rapp of Woodbridge, then a vocational rehabilitation counselor with the D.C. Department of Disability Services, defrauded the city out of more than $880,000 by working to have benefits, such as college tuition, awarded to individuals not eligible to receive them, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu said in a statement. She conspired with 52-year-old Cleophat Tanis of Naples, Fla., president of a nursing school, who worked with Rapp to get $47,895 in benefits awarded to five students who were not D.C. residents and were not eligible, the statement said. Tanis also gave one of Rapp’s relatives money and a full scholarship to the school, according to the statement. On Monday, Tanis pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, prosecutors said, and faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison at his sentencing in March. Rapp, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in July, faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, according to prosecutors. Local newsletters: Local headlines (8 a.m.) | Afternoon Buzz (4 p.m.) Like PostLocal on Facebook | Follow @postlocal on Twitter | Latest local news |