Education
Waste of the Day: California School Official Stole $14 Million, Prosecutors Say
A California school financial officer embezzled $14 million from the district he serves and is charged with federal embezzlement.
The senior director of fiscal services at the Magnolia School District in Orange County, California, embezzled more than $14 million over seven years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged.
Jorge Armando Contreras was charged with a felony of embezzling from programs receiving federal money, and was jailed without bond, The Orange County Register reported.
Contreras allegedly using the money to pay $1.9 million to American Express, transferred more than $130,000 to a person he would later marry, bought a BMW SUV and withdrew $325,000 in cash from ATMs.
He also allegedly used some of the money to pay $190,000 to a West Hollywood dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon and to buy Versace and Louis Vuitton luxury items, prosecutors claim.
Contreras wrote more than 260 checks to fictitious people — ranging from $11,000 to $95,000 — that were deposited into his personal bank account, according to the charges.
The school district official changed documents to hide the embezzlement, and some of the money was transferred to bank accounts in Mexico, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege in 2020, Contreras bought a house in Yorba Linda and paid for more than $1 million of it through a wire transfer from a personal bank account. He also allegedly changed bank statements for a loan application to hide the embezzled funds.
Now, the district is trying to recover and freeze about $4 million of the federal funds that were stolen. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 81% of the children in the school district are classified as socio-economically disadvantaged, so the district receives millions of dollars in federal funds every year.
How a person could steal $14 million over seven years with no one noticing means the district should have more checks in place and Contreras should never again be trusted with other peoples’ money.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) was the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.
Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.
Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski passed away in his sleep at his home in in Hinsdale, Illinois, on August 18, 2024. He is survived by his wife Kerry and three daughters. He also served as a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
Waste of the Day articles published after August 18, 2024 are considered posthumous publications.
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