The former head of a Huntington Beach escrow and loan company
will plead guilty to embezzling $3.9 million from 23 California
cities
– including Hollister – federal prosecutors announced.
The former head of a Huntington Beach escrow and loan company will plead guilty to embezzling $3.9 million from 23 California cities – including Hollister – federal prosecutors announced.
Belinda Exon, 55, who ran the now-defunct Rehab Financial Services, Inc., held grant money and loan proceeds in escrow for the cities, according to a plea agreement filed April 15 in U.S. District Court.
The cities affected include San Francisco, Santa Cruz and a number of Southern California locales. Hollister is said to have lost $22,195 in the embezzlement.
Prosecutors say Exon used the stolen money to buy 10 properties and two plots of land in Arizona, and to finance two of her other companies. The alleged theft occurred between 2002 and 2008.
Exon was charged with one felony count of embezzlement. She agreed to plead guilty last Friday.
She faces up to 46 months in federal prison, Assistant United States Attorney Ranee Katzenstein said. She must also forfeit the properties and pay back the cities.
“Obviously, its important to us to do what we can to make the victims whole, and in this plea agreement that (she) has agreed to, it is an important step in that direction,” Katzenstein said.
Her attorney, Bob Bernstein, declined to comment.
San Francisco suffered the largest loss in the state at more than $1 million.
The majority of the embezzled money came from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which had given the money to cities to improve low-income housing, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Exon, who now lives in Chandler, Ariz., wasn’t arrested, prosecutors said. She has cooperated with authorities.
Her initial court appearance is scheduled for June 7.
