Jorge Armando Contreras seemed to enjoy a life beyond the means of a fiscal director for an Orange County school district.
He wore designer clothing, drove a BMW X5 and bought a new $1.5-million home in Yorba Linda, according to federal prosecutors.
He also had stacks of cash stuffed into Louis Vuitton purses and a mini-fridge at his home, federal prosecutors said.
Contreras, 53, was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling $16.7 million from the Magnolia School District. The school district, for grades preschool through sixth, serves mostly students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds in Anaheim and Stanton, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California announced in a news release.
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From September 2016 to July 2023, Contreras carried out his theft as the director of fiscal services. He deposited more than 250 checks in his personal Wells Fargo bank account, according to drive-through ATM photos included in the criminal complaint, and then presented falsified bank records to the school district.
In just 11 months, Contreras embezzled more than $4.1 million, according to court documents. During that same time, he withdrew $325,000 from multiple ATMs, transferred more than $130,000 to his partner before they were married and paid $1.9 million on his American Express credit card.
He presented checks to his superiors to sign for small amounts from a school account that he claimed were meant to correct payroll errors and for school fundraising, court records show. He would later alter the check amounts. Checks were initially made out to “MSD” with large spaces in between the letters but he changed them to “Maria Socorro Dominguez” prosecutors said, but there were no employees at the school district with that name.
Between November 2018 and May 2023, Contreras wired more than $150,000 to multiple banks in Mexico, prosecutors said. In notes for one of the wire transfers Contreras wrote “building home,” and in another he wrote “construction doors stairs and window,” according to court documents, and a $5,000 wire transfer in 2022 was simply noted as “luxury jackets.”
Prosecutors claimed Contreras also had a front production company that he used to help explain his wealth. The company, JC Productions, was described in an Instagram post as staging the “best musical productions and live events,” according to court records.
Contreras gave school officials $25 Starbucks gift cards as Christmas gifts that he signed with JC Productions. One school official said they saw a JC Productions billboard in the school district to promote a musical act, prosecutors said.
Federal agents who searched Contrera’s Yorba Linda home on Oct. 19, 2023, found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, designer bags and eight bottles of Clase Azul Ultra Tequila, which cost about $1,800 per bottle.
Federal agents seized 33 Louis Vuitton bags, wallets and purses, along with Cartier, David Yurman and Versace jewelry, 11 pairs of designer shoes and accessories, according to court records.
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Contreras pleaded guilty March 28 to one count of embezzlement, theft and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal funds, according to federal prosecutors.
“Instead of using his job at a public school district to help socioeconomically disadvantaged children, Contreras embezzled millions upon millions of dollars, which he flagrantly spent on a luxury home, car, and designer clothes and accessories,” U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada said in a statement.
Authorities said they have been able to recover about $7.7 million in property and personal items traced to the scheme. In sentencing Contreras, U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter ordered him to pay $16,694,942 in restitution.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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