CEO of guardianship company indicted

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.

A bill being considered by lawmakers would add additional safeguards to help prevent such vulnerable people from being exploited by their money managers and guardians.

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CEO of guardianship company indicted

Albuquerque firm accused of embezzling about $50k from clients

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - A non-profit that's supposed to be helping vulnerable people with their finances is accused of bilking them out of money. Many of those clients had already fallen victim to crooks before.

Attorney General Hector Balderas says he got a tip from a local judge last year about the CEO of Guardian Angels Representative Payee Services, taking money from more than 240 disabled clients.

Thursday, he issued a search warrant and found the business took about $50,000 in a banking scheme.

"We already confirmed that we don't believe these proceeds were spent in the interest of the clients and so I'm very concerned," says Attorney General Hector Balderas.

Balderas says BBVA Compass Bank was offering a promotional $200 bonus for opening up a checking account. According to a search warrant, Guardian Angels opened up accounts for 247 clients, and CEO Pamela Crumpler would take the $200 bonuses and transfer them to the company's account.

The AG's Office found Crumpler had been doing this since June 2018, pocketing almost $50,000.

Friday, a client of Guardian Angels told KRQE News 13 he's had problems with them in the past.

"They need to do a more thorough background check and they need to do more audits on them," said Roger Hardy.

Hardy was also a victim of the now defunct Ayudando Guardians.

Many of Ayudando's clients were moved to Guardian Angels after their founders were charged with stealing more than $4 million from accounts to feed their lavish lifestyle.

KRQE News 13 reached out to Crumpler, the CEO of Guardian Angels, Friday afternoon. She did not wish to comment and said thank you for the call, then hung up.

The AG's Office anticipates charging Crumpler sometime next week.

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Albuquerque firm accused of embezzling about $50k from clients

AG says vulnerable clients were victimized a 2nd time

Attorney General Hector Balderas sounded the alarm Friday for more oversight of professional firms that handle money for vulnerable people, disclosing that his office has “credible evidence” that an Albuquerque company siphoned about $50,000 from nearly 250 clients after inheriting their cases from the now-defunct Ayudando Guardians Inc.

The AG’s allegations against Guardian Angels Representative Payee Services, located on San Pedro NE, represent the third time in less than two years that a private company entrusted to manage finances for special needs or otherwise vulnerable people has been accused of embezzling their funds.

No arrests have been made, but AG agents executed a search warrant Thursday at the firm and removed several dozen boxes of documents. The owner/operator of the company, Pamela Crumpler, had no comment Friday when contacted by the Journal.

Balderas cited the “critical investigation” of the firm in asking Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a letter Friday for her assistance in combating the “guardianship crisis in our State.”

“In the wake of this investigation and previous scandals,” Balderas wrote, “we have the opportunity to trigger all available state resources and create more oversight in these matters.”

He noted “systemic failures of state and federal governments that must be immediately addressed by all stakeholders.”

“The current lack of state regulation and oversight of guardianship and representative-payee services presents a clear and present danger of repeated exploitation of this population that deserves our immediate attention, intervention and protection,” he wrote.

Ayudando Guardians Inc., one of the state’s largest guardian and representative payee services firms, was closed by the U.S. Marshals Service in late August 2017 after its two principals and two family members were implicated in a $4 million embezzlement of client funds.

The four defendants are awaiting trial in federal court on money laundering, fraud and other charges linked to the scheme that prosecutors say supported a lavish lifestyle that included vacation cruises and luxury cars.

Ayudando’s estimated 1,400 clients were transferred by U.S. Marshals to other guardians or firms, like Guardian Angels, whose website states that it is a nonprofit corporation formed for “charitable purposes.”

As a representative payee, the company charges a monthly fee to receive clients’ Social Security or other government benefits, annuity payments or settlement proceeds, and pay their expenses for food, housing and other needs.

In the federal Ayudando case, prosecutors chiefly focused on the federal military veteran benefits allegedly embezzled.

Months before the Ayudando revelations broke in 2017, state securities regulators announced that more than 70 clients of Desert State Life Management of Albuquerque were the victims of a separate $4 million embezzlement.

The clients of that now-closed firm, which acted as conservator and fiduciary for developmentally or physically disabled and elderly individuals, are still trying to recoup their losses. Meanwhile Paul Donisthorpe, former CEO of the firm, is to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Feb. 22 after pleading guilty to money laundering and wire fraud.

In his letter to Lujan Grisham, Balderas stated that in December 2017 he received a request from Albuquerque’s state district court judges asking that his office review “certain civil guardianship matters which were not investigated or prosecuted federally.”

That resulted in the investigation of Guardian Angels Representative Payee Services, which inherited nearly 250 of Ayudando’s clients who needed help managing their funds. Balderas told the governor it was tragic that these individuals had been victimized after their cases were transferred by the U.S. Marshals to Guardian Angels.

Guardian Angels, like any other representative payee organization, “takes complete control over how these funds are expended, and where that money is ultimately deposited,” Balderas wrote in another letter Friday to officials with BBVA Compass Bank, based in Birmingham, Ala.

Guardian Angels is accused of taking advantage of a promotion by Compass Bank, in which the bank would deposit $200 into a newly created account that met the promotional requirements.

“Unfortunately,” Balderas wrote, the CEO of Guardian Angels “shifted the accounts of 247 vulnerable persons to BBVA Compass.” Then the CEO withdrew the $200 promotion from each account and deposited the funds into “an account only she had control of.”

“Investigators in my agency have probable cause to believe that the CEO of GARP converted these funds to her own personal use, to the detriment of these vulnerable persons, to pay her own personal financial obligations,” stated Balderas’ letter to the bank.

In an affidavit to search the company’s premises, an AG investigator stated that during a guardianship hearing before state District Judge Shannon Bacon of Albuquerque last September, the court-appointed guardian from Professional Guardianship Associates told the judge she had concerns about a protected person’s bank account.

Guardian Angels had been appointed to act as representative payee a year earlier for that individual, and the guardian learned the protected person’s bank account had been transferred to Compass Bank without notifying the guardian.

When she inquired of Guardian Angels about the $200 bonus, the guardian was told there had been a mistake by the bank and the money should have gone directly to the representative payee firm.

After the judge was told of the discrepancy, Guardian Angels transferred the $200 back into the protected person’s account. That prompted the AG search of other clients’ accounts.

A search warrant executed last November by the AG showed expenditures and transaction that Guardian Angels “would not have been able to conduct … had it not been for the bonus money GARP unlawfully obtained from 247 of its clients,” the AG investigator stated in an affidavit.

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AG says vulnerable clients were victimized a 2nd time