TACOMA, Wash. — A former state employee who embezzled nearly $900,000 from Washington’s Office of Administrative Hearings was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in federal prison for wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

Matthew Randall Ping, 48, of Olympia, pleaded guilty in June. Prosecutors said Ping carried out one of the largest insider thefts from Washington state in at least 15 years, siphoning funds through fake vendors and credit card transactions he manipulated to escape oversight.

“This theft was not just the largest insider embezzlement from Washington State in the last 15 years, it also undermines trust in our state financial safeguards,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said. “Mr. Ping not only cheated state taxpayers, he cheated on his federal taxes as well by faili

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