Local

Payroll scam targets transgender employees

Fraudulent emails ask for change in bank account for direct deposits

Published

1 year ago

December 23, 2024

(Photo by looby/Bigstock)

Email messages claiming to be from an employee that were sent in November to the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative in Arlington, Va., and to a yoga studio in Middleton, Del., requested that the employees’ direct deposit paycheck be sent to a new bank account.

According to an official with the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative and the employee at the yoga studio, the emails had the employees’ correct names, including a photo, and included a bank account number for the Green Dot Bank where the email messages said the salary payments should be deposited.

Yoga studio teacher SK Smigiel, who identifies as transgender and uses the pronouns she/they, and LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative official S.C. Neely said their organizations checked with the employees to verify whether they wanted to change their bank accounts and quickly learned that the email messages were fake and were an attempt to steal the salary payment of the employees.

Smigiel told the Washington Blade she posted information about what happened on her Instagram page and received information from people across the country saying the same scam happened to others and at least some lost money.

“I shared that this happened to us,” Smigiel said in referring to her social media postings about the attempted scam. “And we got up to 12 other people across the country in the last month saying this has happened to them. And many of them lost money,” Smigiel told the Blade.

“So, their employers did not catch this before it went through,” she said. “So, now we are having active harm happening to people, and from what I’m seeing across the board, police are not investigating or doing anything to take action.”

According to Smigiel, the employees being targeted by this scam appear to be transgender, including the employee of the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative in Arlington.

“For me it was the same thing,” she said. “I’m the only trans employee at my company. And I’m not sure if these people are starting on social media to try to find trans people and their employment specifically. But it has only happened from what I’ve seen to the trans community specifically, which is interesting.”

Smigiel, who spoke to the Blade on Dec. 9, said she had not yet reported the attempted scam to police in Delaware, but she saved copies of the fake emails sent to her employer at the yoga studio, which included a bank account number for the Green Dot Bank.

“I’m kind of sitting on it, waiting to hear more from other people I’ve spoken to, because they’re from different districts across the country,” she said.

Nealy, however, said she did report the attempted scam to Arlington police and, much to her disappointment, she was told police declined to investigate the incident.

Arlington police spokesperson Ashley Savage told the Blade police have documented the incident but confirmed a decision was made not to open an investigation at this time.

“Given it was an attempted fraud, there was no fraud that was committed,” Savage told the Blade. “And based on call volume, we have to evaluate the information that we receive regarding cases and whether or not there is information to follow up on,” she said.

Asked whether Arlington police could have followed up on this case, especially since the fake email messages sent to the Arlington based LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative included the name of a bank and a bank account number, Savage said, “The information has been documented.”

She added, “We do work with a high volume of cases, especially with property-based crimes,” she said. “And we do evaluate whether or not there is a solvability factor for each one of them, unfortunately.”

The Blade contacted the Green Dot Bank, which describes itself on its website as a “branchless bank that operates primarily through retail distribution locations nationwide.” A spokesperson for the bank said the bank was “aware of and engaged on this matter” but could not provide specific details.

“For privacy and security reasons, we’re unable to share details about customer accounts or circumstances, or specifics on our work to combat fraud,” said Whit Chapman, Green Dot Bank’s director of communications. “However, we can confirm that account protection and fraud prevention are top priorities at Green Dot, and we work around the clock and invest heavily to identify, block and address fraudulent activity.”

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Gay Cameroonian immigrant will be freed from ICE detention — for now

Ludovic Mbock’s homeland criminalizes homosexuality

Published

1 day ago

March 13, 2026

Baltimore Banner

Competitive gamer Ludovic Mbock, left, with his sister, Diane Sohna. (Photo courtesy of Diane Sohna)

By ANTONIO PLANAS | An immigration judge on Friday issued a $4,000 bond for a Cameroonian immigrant and regional gaming champion held in federal immigration detention for the past three weeks.

The ruling will allow Ludovic Mbock, of Oxon Hill, to return to Maryland from a Georgia facility this weekend, his family and attorney said.

“Realistically, by tomorrow. Hopefully, by today,” said Mbock’s attorney, Edward Neufville. “We are one step closer to getting Ludovic justice.”

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

District of Columbia

Bowser appoints first nonbinary person to Cabinet-level position

Peter Stephan named Office of Disability Rights interim director

Published

2 days ago

March 12, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

The Wilson Building (Bigstock photo by Leonid Andronov)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower has named longtime disability rights advocate Peter L. Stephan, who identifies as nonbinary, as interim director of the D.C. Office of Disability Rights.

The local transgender and nonbinary advocacy group Our Trans Capital and the LGBTQ group Capital Stonewall Democrats issued a joint statement calling Stephan’s appointment an historic development as the first-ever appointment of a nonbinary person to a Cabinet-level D.C. government position.

“This milestone appointment recognizes Stephan’s extensive expertise in disability rights advocacy and marks a historic advancement for transgender and nonbinary representation in District government leadership,” the statement says.

The statement notes that Stephan, an attorney, held the position of general counsel at the Office of Disability Rights immediately prior to the mayor’s decision to name him interim director.

The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Bowser plans to name Stephan as the permanent director of the Office of Disability Rights. John Fanning, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said the office’s director position requires confirmation by the Council.

Stephan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

“At a time when trans and nonbinary people ae under attack across the country, D.C. continues to lead by example,” said Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats. “This appointment reflects what we have always believed that our community is always strongest when every voice is represented in government,” he said.

“This is a historic step forward,” said Vida Rengel, founder of Our Trans Capital. “Interim Director Stephan’s career and accomplishments are a shining example of the positive impact that trans and nonbinary public servants can have on our communities,” according to Rangel.

District of Columbia

Capital Stonewall Democrats set to celebrate 50th anniversary

Mayor Bowser expected to attend March 20 event

Published

4 days ago

March 11, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Mayor Bowser is expected to attend the Capital Stonewall Democrats 50th gala. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, members of the D.C. Council, and local and national Democratic Party officials are expected to join more than 150 LGBTQ advocates and supporters on March 20 for the 50^th anniversary celebration of the city’s Capital Stonewall Democrats.

A statement released by the organization says the event is scheduled to be held at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery building at 702 8^th St., N.W. in D.C.

“The evening will honor the people who built Capital Stonewall Democrats across five decades – activists who fought for rights when the odds were against them, public servants who opened doors and refused to let them close, and a new generation of leaders ready to carry the work forward,” the statement says.

Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to the Capital Stonewall Democrats.

Among those planning to attend the anniversary event is longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Paul Kuntzler, 84, who is one of the two co-founders of the then-Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. Kuntzler told the Washington Blade that he and co-founder Richard Maulsby were joined by about a dozen others in the living room of his Southwest D.C. home at the group’s founding meeting in January 1976.

He said that among the reasons for forming a local LGBTQ Democratic group at the time was to arrange for a then “gay” presence at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, at which Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination for U.S. president and later won election as president.

Maulsby, who served as the Stein Club president for its first three years and who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., said he would not be attending the March 20 anniversary event, but he fully supports the organization’s continuing work as an LGBTQ organization associated with the Democratic Party.

Steven McCarty, Capital Stonewall Democrats’ current president, said in the statement that the anniversary celebration will highlight the organization’s work since the time of its founding.

“Capital Stonewall Democrats has been fighting for LGBTQ+ political power in this city for 50 years, electing people, training organizers, holding this community together through some really hard moments,” he said. “And right now, with everything going on, that work has never mattered more. This gala is the first moment of our next chapter, and I want the community to be a part of it.”

The statement says among the special guests attending the event will be Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta, who became the first openly gay LGBTQ person of color to win election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018.

Other guests of honor, according to the statement, include Mayor Bowser; D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5, the Council’s only gay member; D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large); Earl Fowlkes, founder of the International Federation of Black Prides; Vita Rangel, a transgender woman who serves as Deputy Director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments; Heidi Ellis, director of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; Rayceen Pendarvis, longtime D.C. LGBTQ civic activist; and Phillip Pannell, longtime D.C. LGBTQ Democratic activist and Ward 8 civic activist.

Information about ticket availability for the Capital Stonewall Democrats anniversary gala can be accessed here: capitalstonewalldemocrats.com/50th