California education official embezzled over $16 million, hid cash in mini fridge

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.

Prosecutors said that Contreras was hired in 2006 and managed the fiscal operations of the district, where 81% of pupils from preschool through sixth grade are classified as socio-economically disadvantaged. 

Instead of using the money he was entrusted with managing to benefit the schools, he spent it on a lavish lifestyle purchasing Louis Vuitton designer bags, a luxury car and using the money towards a home.

In his role he had access to school district bank accounts and the student body bank account, and “caused checks from these accounts to be deposited into his personal bank account,” the release said.

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.

Prosecutors said he pocketed a total of $16,694,942 from the district. 

He was place on administrative leave in August 2023. The district then filed a lawsuit in Orange Count Superior Court. 

Officials said that law enforcement seized approximately $7.7 million in personal and real property traced to his fraud — including a home in Yorba Linda, a 2021 BMW automobile, 57 luxury designer bags — most of them Louis Vuitton, pieces of jewelry, designer clothes and shoes and eight bottles of Clase Azul Ultra luxury tequila.

Photos released by the prosecutor’s office showed a mini fridge stuffed with stacks of cash, and an array of Louis Vuitton purses also stuffed with wads of bills.

NBC News has reached out to Contreras’ attorney for comment.