Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
Susan Harris
More than a year after she fled to Oklahoma with her husband, former president of Ayudando Guardians Inc., Susan Harris, will be convicted in federal court in Santa Fe Thursday for guilty of a year-long embezzlement plan that resulted in more than 10 Millions of dollars from hundreds of disadvantaged and disabled customers.
The couple, who used their clients’ trust money and government benefits to support lavish lifestyles and travel, failed to show up in March 2020 as U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez and a courtroom full of victims waited in vain for her arrival. They have been free on supervised release since their confession of guilt in the summer of 2019.
This time around, Harris and her husband William are expected to appear in prison clothes and handcuffs being transported from federal custody by U.S. marshals, where they have remained since their arrest in April 2020.
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In the case of Susan Harris, the sentence is likely to be severe and will send the 74-year-old woman to federal prison for the rest of her life. Harris’ husband, who is more than 30 years old, is also expected to appear before Vazquez for conviction, and prosecutors have asked her to issue a 15-year prison sentence.
The procedure starts at 8 a.m.
A former Ayudando case officer, William Harris, 60, was originally due to receive a seven-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. But US prosecutors pulled the plea deal after Harris and his wife abruptly fled their home in Albuquerque’s gated Tanoan community just days before their conviction.
The couple evaded authorities along with their pet Chihuahua until they were captured by U.S. marshals in Shawnee, Oklahoma on April 15, 2020.
Meanwhile, Susan Harris’ business partner, Ayudando Chief Financial Officer Sharon Moore, is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in transferring funds from customer funds to pay credit card fees for personal expenses.
The defendants used the stolen funds for luxury cars, vacations, a motor home, Final Four tickets and $ 100,000 for fantasy football, among other things.
Harris’ first marriage son, Craig Young, who was employed by the company as a guardian, was sentenced to 71 months in prison.
Susan Harris, a co-founder of the now-closed company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, postal fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2019.
Federal prosecutors allege that the four defendants led a “carefree, comfortable life” with money stolen from customers with Susan Harris as the “undisputed leader of the criminal enterprise”. Documents seized by federal agencies show that the system worked for at least seven years before several Ayudando employees contacted law enforcement officers who noticed the discrepancies.
Moore and Susan Harris were charged in July 2017, and Susan Harris’ two family members were later charged. The federal agencies eventually closed the deal and clients were reassigned to other guardians or financial firms. Of the more than $ 10 million misappropriated, about $ 6.8 million was used for personal expenses, according to the latest government calculations, while the rest was used to keep business going.
Prosecutors say Susan Harris and Moore wrote hundreds of checks from company accounts by pooling customer trust funds and monthly government benefits. When employees noticed their customers’ inexplicable bank accounts deficiencies, Moore would wait time to steal money from new customers in order to cover up previous thefts, prosecutors alleged.
The defendants went on luxury cruises, paid tax debts and mortgages, maintained a Lobo Club box in the Pit Arena, and made frequent trips to Las Vegas, Nevada to shop – all at the expense of their customers.
Susan Harris’s largest category of spending was travel, with more than $ 399,817 being debited from the Ayudando company’s credit card, a state file said.
Ayudando (Spanish for providing assistance) Guardians Inc. was founded in 2004 as a not-for-profit company that, according to U.S. Attorneys, has served guardianship, conservatory, trustee and representative payee services for hundreds of people with special needs or unable to manage their money. Susan Harris was the founder and 95 percent owner of what became one of the largest of its kind in New Mexico.
“Customers, their families, Ayudando’s own employees, social workers, lawyers, judges – people from the entire guardianship community trust Ayudando Guardians and the defendant Susan Harris,” said a filing by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in December 2019.
Customers included military veterans, social security recipients, and people with special needs. Virtually all of the firm’s clients lost money “through the greed of the defendants,” said the US prosecutor, who requested a 21-year prison sentence for Susan Harris before she failed to appear on conviction in March 2020. No new recommendation from the US attorney is on file. Your attorney has asked the court for indulgence.
It is still unclear to what extent the estimated 837 lost customers will be repaid.