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**Updated 6:30pm on 8/7**
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Defendant Pleads Guilty to Eight Charges, Including Bribery, Procurement Fraud, and Felony Theft
BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced today that Walter O’Riley Poindexter, 51, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, pleaded guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court before the Honorable Stacy A. Mayer to eight charges arising from different schemes to fraudulently obtain Maryland state public contracts and funds. Through those schemes, Poindexter obtained $417,451 and attempted to steal another $92,672.
From 2020 through 2024, Poindexter fraudulently obtained cleaning contracts for Maryland Department of Labor facilities, grants from the Port of Baltimore Worker Retention Program, and unemployment insurance benefits. He also attempted to fraudulently obtain a state income tax refund. The investigation was led by the Attorney General’s Fraud and Corruption Unit, housed within the Criminal Division.
“Marylanders trust that State contracts and relief programs serve the public, not line fraudsters’ pockets,” said Attorney General Brown. “My Office remains committed to holding accountable those who exploit that trust.
Poindexter pleaded guilty to three counts of procurement fraud and one count of bribery in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain Maryland state COVID-related cleaning contracts. Beginning in 2020, Poindexter conspired with Ronald Van Price, the then-director of the Office of General Services at the Maryland Department of Labor, to illegally steer more than $304,000 in COVID-related cleaning contracts to Poindexter’s company, P-Dex LLC. The scheme involved manipulating the procurement process, circumventing standard rules and procedures, and concealing material conflicts of interest. In exchange for Price’s assistance, Poindexter is alleged to have paid bribes to Price totaling at least $88,000. Price was indicted in October of 2025 and is set to stand trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County on December 7, 2026. A criminal indictment is merely an accusation of wrongdoing, and a defendant is presumed innocent until the State proves the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Poindexter also pleaded guilty to one count of theft of $97,500 and one count of attempted theft in the amount of $82,500 for his role in a separate scheme to defraud the Maryland Department of Labor’s Port of Baltimore Worker Retention Program, which was designed to provide relief to workers displaced by reduced Port activity after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March 2024. Later that year, Poindexter submitted fraudulent applications on behalf of two business entities, Street Genius LLC and P-Dex LLC, falsely representing both businesses as liquidation logistics companies employing numerous workers affected by reduced Port operations. In fact, neither business had any connection to the Port, nor did they employ any of the individuals that Poindexter had listed on his applications as affected by the bridge collapse.
Poindexter further pleaded guilty to one count of theft for fraudulently obtaining $15,112 in unemployment insurance benefits from the Maryland Department of Labor in 2021, and to one count of attempted theft for attempting to fraudulently obtain a state income tax refund of $10,172 in 2023.
Poindexter is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Mayer in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County on January 29, 2027.
In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Brown thanked his Criminal Division, specifically Criminal Division Chief Katie Dorian, Fraud and Corruption Unit Chief Alexander Huggins, and Assistant Attorneys General Kathryn Bartz, William Elman, and Alyn Pearson, who prosecuted these cases. Attorney General Brown also thanked Investigative Auditors Harry Schulz and Amy Amy. Finally, Attorney General Brown thanked the Office of Legislative Audits, the Office of the State Prosecutor, the Maryland Department of Labor, and State’s Attorney for Baltimore County Scott Shellenberger for their assistance in this investigation and prosecution.
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