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| Attorney General Hector Balderas |
The CEO of Guardian Angels Representative Payee Services, a
private company that managed the finances for special needs or infirm
people, has been indicted on charges of embezzling tens of thousands of
dollars from clients.
According to the indictment filed
in 2nd Judicial District Court on Tuesday, between June and November of
last year, 56-year-old Pamela Crumpler “did convert to her own use money
belonging to her clients,” and it was “with intent at the time of
conversion to fraudulently deprive the owner of his/her property.”
She then put the money back into her clients’ bank accounts to avoid getting caught, according to the indictment.
“No
one should take advantage of vulnerable individuals in our community,”
Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a news release. “We are
prepared to present this case at trial.”
Crumpler is charged with embezzlement over $20,000 and tampering with evidence.
The Journal could not reach her for comment.
Representative
payee and guardianship companies operate by taking control of their
clients’ Social Security or other government benefits, annuity payments
or settlement proceeds and paying their clients’ expenses for food,
housing and other needs.
This is the third instance in the past two years where such a company has been charged with embezzling funds from clients.
The
other two companies, Ayudando Guardians Inc. and Desert State Life
Management, were accused of taking millions of dollars from clients and
have since been shut down.
In fact, Balderas said, many
of the clients Crumpler is accused of siphoning money from came to her
from the now-defunct Ayudando Guardians.
Ayudando Guardians Inc., one of the state’s largest guardian
and representative payee services firms, was shuttered in August 2017.
Its chief financial officer, president, the president’s son and the
president’s husband were federally charged in a $4 million embezzlement
scheme that prosecutors say supported their lavish spending habits on
luxury cruises and vacations.
The four are awaiting trial.
After
Ayudando shut down, its estimated 1,400 clients were transferred to
other guardians or firms – including the nonprofit Guardian Angels.
Balderas
said Crumpler’s scheme began in 2018 when BBVA Compass Bank began
running a promotion that would deposit $200 into new accounts that met
certain requirements.
According to a letter Balderas sent
to the bank, Crumpler took advantage of this promotion and shifted 247
of her clients’ accounts to the bank. Then, he said, she withdrew the
bonus money and deposited it into her own account.
“In
total, the CEO of GARP embezzled nearly $50,000 of funds designed to go
specifically to the benefit of these vulnerable persons,” Balderas wrote
in the letter.
Crumpler could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
The
indictment comes less than three weeks after Paul Donisthorpe, the CEO
of another nonprofit trust company, was sentenced to 12 years in federal
prison for stealing $4.8 million from more than 70 clients.
Desert
State Life Management is now closed, but it had acted as a conservator
and fiduciary for developmentally or physically disabled and elderly
individuals.
In early February, Balderas asked Gov.
Michelle Lujan Grisham for assistance in combatting what he called a
guardianship crisis in the state. He said the current lack of state
regulation and oversight of the process has led to repeated exploitation
of a vulnerable population.
Full Article & Source:
CEO of guardianship company indicted
