Federal prosecutors charged former Santa Cruz County Treasurer Elizabeth Gutfahr with three felonies on Tuesday relating to her alleged theft of more than $38.7 million in County funds.
The official charges are embezzlement by a public official, money laundering and tax evasion. Click here to see the 12-page introduction to the indictment filed by the Department of Justice.
Gutfahr is scheduled to appear at U.S. District Court in Tucson on Thursday at 9am for a detention hearing before Magistrate Judge Eric J. Markovich. Court documents appear to show that Gutfahr intends to plead not guilty to all three charges.
In a statement to the PRT late Wednesday afternoon, Supervisor Bruce Bracker, whose term expires in January, said, “As a County Supervisor, I have been patiently waiting to see the results of the DOJ investigation and strongly feel that Mrs. Gutfahr needs to be held accountable for the crime she perpetrated on our community. In the meantime, the civil lawsuit the county filed against her has been effective in recovering millions of stolen public funds. Last Friday, in a further attempt to make our community whole, the county filed its civil lawsuit against the Auditor General for its role in this saga.”
Incoming Supervisor John Fanning told the PRT Wednesday evening, “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad people’s angst and concerns will be addressed now. People want resolution, and they deserve resolution. I know that when the Feds are involved, it takes time; they want to ensure they have all their ducks in a row before moving forward, and I’m just glad that this next step will help alleviate many people’s pain and frustrations.”
The documents filed by the Department of Justice allege that Gutfahr “used the millions of dollars of stolen money for…gross personal enrichment,” including purchases of three properties in Tumacacori in a single eight-month period in 2019.
One of those Tumacacori properties was the 150-acre, 9,000-square foot Rancho San Cayetano ranch, which the DOJ claims had a sale price of approximately $2.7 million.
Further, the DOJ claims in the indictment that Gutfahr “paid a home remodeler with the public funds that she stole from the County and has described the remodel of her Rancho San Cayetano premises, as a ‘huge overhaul’ that included new plumbing, new floors, and new electrical.”
That statement is followed in the indictment by this photograph:
Gutfahr’s Rancho San Cayetano property is promoted online with this video, uploaded in September, 2022:
