California education official embezzled over $16 million, hid cash in mini fridge, officials say [View all]

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A former California public school district official was sentenced to over five years in prison Thursday after officials found he embezzled nearly $16.7 million from the district over the years — hiding stacks of cash in a small refrigerator.

Jorge Armando Contreras, 53, who previously worked as the senior director of fiscal services at the Magnolia School District, a public school district that serves Anaheim and Stanton, faced his judgement Thursday in Santa Ana court.

He was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $16,694,942 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California said in a news release.

He had pleaded guilty in March to one count of embezzlement, theft and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal funds.

In his scheme, he wrote checks in small dollar amounts written to “M S D” with the letters spaced out. After receiving the paper signatures from others, he would fill in those blanks to spell fictitious names and increase the amounts of the checks and deposit them into his personal bank account at ATM’s. To conceal the theft, he provided bank reconciliation packets to others at the school district with falsified bank statements and records.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-education-official-embezzled-16-million-hid-cash-mini-fridg-rcna163859