A former Drug Enforcement Administration officer pleaded guilty on June 27 to stealing fraud proceeds she had been assigned to recover, according to a release from the Department of Justice. The news came from Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco and Michael Tompkins, FBI special agent in charge.

Former DEA special agent Artemis Papadakis pleaded guilty before Judge Jill Burkhardt. In accordance with the plea agreement, she admitted her assignment in Nicosia, Cyprus from 2008 to 2014 was to recover proceeds from a fraud scheme. In 2014, the release states that she was then transferred to San Francisco. The funds had yet to be recovered.

The 57-year-old from Richmond, California would then return to Cyprus in October 2015 on personal business. While there she took possession of $310,000 of the funds without notifying the government or DEA. Approximately $230,000 of the money was mailed to her house in California and she received an additional $20,000 from a third party when he visited her in the U.S.

Papadakis admitted to hiding the funds in her flower pots at her California home, not telling anyone at the DEA or in the government that she had possession of the fraud proceeds. Then, on Feb. 22, 2016, according to the release, she surrendered the $250,000 to the U.S. government claiming that she had received it in an unexpected package from Cyprus.

Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11 before District Judge John Houston.

Rachael Kalinyak is an editorial intern with Network Solutions.

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