Jorge Armando Contreras appeared to get pleasure from a life past the technique of a fiscal director for an Orange County faculty district.
He wore designer clothes, drove a BMW X5 and acquired a brand new $1.5-million residence in Yorba Linda, in keeping with federal prosecutors.
He additionally had stacks of money stuffed into Louis Vuitton purses and a mini-fridge at his residence, federal prosecutors mentioned.
Contreras, 53, was sentenced Thursday to almost six years in jail after pleading responsible to embezzling $16.7 million from the Magnolia College District. The varsity district, for grades preschool by sixth, serves principally college students from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds in Anaheim and Stanton, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California introduced in a information launch.
From September 2016 to July 2023, Contreras carried out his theft because the director of fiscal providers. He deposited greater than 250 checks in his private Wells Fargo checking account, in keeping with drive-through ATM images included within the felony grievance, after which offered falsified financial institution data to the college district.
In simply 11 months, Contreras embezzled greater than $4.1 million, in keeping with court docket paperwork. Throughout that very same time, he withdrew $325,000 from a number of ATMs, transferred greater than $130,000 to his companion earlier than they had been married and paid $1.9 million on his American Categorical bank card.
He offered checks to his superiors to signal for small quantities from a college account that he claimed had been meant to right payroll errors and for college fundraising, court docket data present. He would later alter the verify quantities. Checks had been initially made out to “MSD” with giant areas in between the letters however he modified them to “Maria Socorro Dominguez” prosecutors mentioned, however there have been no workers on the faculty district with that title.
Images of designer purses stuffed with money offered as proof in opposition to Jorge Armando Contreras, a former faculty official accused of embezzling over $16 million from the Magnolia College District.
(U.S. lawyer’s workplace)
Between November 2018 and Might 2023, Contreras wired greater than $150,000 to a number of banks in Mexico, prosecutors mentioned. In notes for one of many wire transfers Contreras wrote “constructing residence,” and in one other he wrote “development doorways stairs and window,” in keeping with court docket paperwork, and a $5,000 wire switch in 2022 was merely famous as “luxurious jackets.”
Prosecutors claimed Contreras additionally had a entrance manufacturing firm that he used to assist clarify his wealth. The corporate, JC Productions, was described in an Instagram submit as staging the “greatest musical productions and stay occasions,” in keeping with court docket data.
Contreras gave faculty officers $25 Starbucks reward playing cards as Christmas items that he signed with JC Productions. One faculty official mentioned they noticed a JC Productions billboard within the faculty district to advertise a musical act, prosecutors mentioned.
Federal brokers who searched Contrera’s Yorba Linda residence on Oct. 19, 2023, discovered lots of of hundreds of {dollars} in money, designer luggage and eight bottles of Clase Azul Extremely Tequila, which price about $1,800 per bottle.
Federal brokers seized 33 Louis Vuitton luggage, wallets and purses, together with Cartier, David Yurman and Versace jewellery, 11 pairs of designer sneakers and equipment, in keeping with court docket data.
Contreras pleaded responsible March 28 to 1 rely of embezzlement, theft and intentional misapplication of funds from a company receiving federal funds, in keeping with federal prosecutors.
“As a substitute of utilizing his job at a public faculty district to assist socioeconomically deprived kids, Contreras embezzled hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, which he flagrantly spent on a luxurious residence, automobile, and designer garments and equipment,” U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada mentioned in an announcement.
Authorities mentioned they’ve been capable of get better about $7.7 million in property and private objects traced to the scheme. In sentencing Contreras, U.S. District Choose Fred Slaughter ordered him to pay $16,694,942 in restitution.
