OLYMPIA, Wash. — A former Washington state employee will spend the next year and a half in prison for embezzling nearly $900,000 during his time employed with the state.
Matthew Randall Ping, 48, pleaded guilty in June 2025 to wire fraud and making and subscribing a false tax return.
According to acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller, Ping began working for the Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) in 2009. By 2017, he had been promoted to the role of Management Analyst and served as the department’s credit card custodian.
Between 2019 and 2023, “Ping used a sophisticated scheme to abuse his credit card access so he could embezzle at least $878,115 from the state agency,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Ping opened accounts with payment processors and gave the accounts display names that indicated the accounts were associated with legitimate OAH business vendors, Miller’s office said.
“Between 2019 and 2021, Ping secretly charged more than $330,000 to OAH credit cards as purported payments to these vendors. The money went to accounts Ping controlled.
In 2021, Ping set up an account via a different payment processor and continued the fraud, stealing approximately $530,000 in additional funds from OAH."
Ping’s co-workers reviewed and approved his credit card transactions, but Ping would provide false lists of transactions during the review process, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Then, he would add in his fraudulent charges and upload and approve payment himself without the required oversight on his fraudulent transactions.
In all, Ping secretly executed 210 fraudulent transactions. He embezzled $878,115 from the state, according to Miller.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright said, “Your crime was very serious but was driven by severe addiction…. Gambling addiction can destroy the life of someone who is otherwise an upstanding citizen.”
Miller said this theft was the largest insider embezzlement from Washington State in the last 15 years.
Ping will be on three years of supervised release following his prison term. Judge Cartwright urged him to be active in advocating for services that would benefit those struggling with a gambling addiction.
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