Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Bob Anderson is asking the Board of Supervisors to approve a request for six new full-time positions to deal with a rise in financial and cybercrimes.The request is for authorization to spend up to $500,000 this year to hire three prosecutors and three paralegals. The positions would cost $960,000 per year.During a meeting of the board’s finance committee on Tuesday, Anderson told supervisors that he recently attended a conference about cybercrimes and said he discovered that they are “not really being addressed” in Loudoun County. Anderson said one form that is especially under addressed is called “pig butchering,” which involves pretending to call someone accidentally, getting into a conversation, and eventually convincing the victim to send money to the criminal. Many of the suspects are located in Southeast Asia.Anderson said Loudoun residents lost $20.8 million to cyber and financial crimes in 2024 and an estimated $53 million in 2025, according to Sheriff’s Office data. Anderson also said that Loudoun’s reputation as a wealthy county means it is frequently targeted by scammers and financial criminals.The three new prosecutor positions would be senior assistant commonwealth’s attorneys, which is the highest rank held by line prosecutors in the office. Anderson said that seniority is required because of the high complexity of these types of cases.Supervisor Kristin Umstattd (D-Leesburg) said it was her understanding that it is rare for law enforcement to be able to identify and capture suspects, or recover lost funds, because of the international nature of the crimes. Anderson said success of capturing and extraditing suspects in foreign countries is easier in some countries than others, and said he would work with the Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.Chuck Perinis, an investigator in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and a former LCSO financial crimes detective and former member of a U.S. Secret Service financial crimes task force, said, “we can track down lots of these people. What they’re using is technology, and the way they use technology to evade prosecution is also what we use to track them down. … You find the trail that leads to these individuals.”Perinis said federal law enforcement often declines to try to find and extradite suspects from overseas because of the work involved but added that state officials are also able to do so and in a case involving $65 million in real estate fraud brought in a suspect from Turkey to face charges in Loudoun in the mid-2000s.
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Most of the money was never recovered, though, Perinis said.County Chair Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) noted that many financial and cybercrimes target elderly residents and also referenced ongoing cases in which checks are being stolen from Loudoun post offices. Anderson said he also has been a victim of check theft and fraud.Randall also asked if extortion schemes targeting young people would be addressed by the new positions. Anderson said they would.Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) asked whether the number of prosecutions related to financial and cybercrimes have increased in tandem with the number of crimes being committed and said she was not comfortable moving the proposal forward until she sees that data.Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles) asked whether the Sheriff’s Office would be involved in the process. Anderson said LCSO was initially going to join his office in the request but then decided to wait until next year’s budget talks begin.Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tom Julia told Loudoun Now that LCSO has no position on Anderson’s request and said LCSO has not yet given its budget requests to the county. Julia said LCSO’s Financial and Cybercrimes Unit is made up of a supervisor, eight detectives, and an analyst.County Budget Director Megan Bourke said her staff was recommending delaying the request until the Fiscal Year 2028 budget process begins because the requested expenses will be recurring, which Committee Chair Koran Saines (D-Sterling) moved the committee recommend the full board do. Saines’ motion passed 3-2 with Randall and Letourneau opposed.
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