The El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office, in partnership with Adult Protective Services (APS) and the Program Integrity Unit (PIU) of Health and Human Services, prioritizes addressing financial elder abuse and welfare fraud. In 2024 alone, the District Attorney’s Office received over 300 fraudulent referrals. These offenses exploit programs meant to assist vulnerable individuals experiencing illness, homelessness, or unemployment. Due to challenges in verifying eligibility, fraud often goes undetected for months and results in processing delays, stricter verification requirements, and increased taxpayer costs to investigate and prosecute these cases.
🔹 Recent case outcomes🔹
On December 2, 2024, Mary Loya pled no contest to one felony count of Grand Theft from an Elder for the theft of between $85,000 and $193,000 over a nine-month period from an elder suffering from memory loss who trusted her to assist him with managing his finances. Ms. Loya, under the guise of helping the victim, consolidated the victim’s money from various investment and bank accounts into a checking account she had access to, and then gambled much of the money at numerous casinos. On January 24, 2025, Ms. Loya was sentenced to serve three years in jail with a portion of that time in custody and the remainder on mandatory community supervision. A restitution hearing will be held to determine the exact amount the defendant must pay back to the elder.
On February 24, 2025, Amanda Bauer pled no contest to a felony count of Welfare and Institutions Code for purposely providing false information to El Dorado County Health and Human Services to obtain more than $5,000 in welfare benefits. On February 24, 2025, Ms. Bauer was sentenced to serve 135 days in jail, placed on two years formal probation, admitted she intentionally violated the welfare program, and was ordered to pay restitution to the Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information, visit us:
https://www.eldoradoda.com/investigations/elder-abuse/
#ElderJustice #WelfareFraud #ElDoradoCountyDA #PublicIntegrity #Accountability #ProtectOurCommunity #StopFraud