Former employee charged with embezzling nearly $400,000 from Latino resource center in order to gamble
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Charges have been brought against the former executive director of a now defunct Latino resource center.
Court documents show that on February 20, Sabina Serratos was charged with stealing nearly $400,000 from Adelante, Inc. between 2019 and 2021.
The text below was from a story published in 2022 detailing the initial criminal complaint.
“I think these services are very much needed. We hope that the Mental Health Board will come around to figure out a way to continue the services,” said Baldemar Velasquez, President of FLOC.
According to a police report, a female employee is accused of stealing more than 400-thousand dollars from January 2019 to April of this year.
A chairman of Adelante, Daniel Briones claims in January 2019 the suspect took out a loan from Key Bank for $49,900 in the name of Adelante Inc. without authorization.
He said the suspect signed the Key Bank loan as the Executive Director. He claims the employee spent money in Vegas on a company card for the organization totaling $10,636 without approval or authorization. She allegedly spent the money on food and gambling.
The female employee under investigation is also accused of going to Firekeepers Casino in Michigan and spending $10,656 from the ATM with a company card. They allege she went to Greek Town in Detroit, MI at the MGM Grand and withdrew and spent a total of $2,848.
Investigators are also looking at transactions made by the employee at another Michigan casino for $1,669 in October of 2021 from a company card.
The owner claims the employee also went to the Hollywood Casino in April, August, and November of 2021 withdrawing and spending $339,636. He told police the woman produced fake receipts from the casino to pass as business expenses.
The police report states the employee used the money to gamble in Michigan, Las Vegas, and Toledo.
Adelante receives more than $170,000 in funding from the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County.
The board has suspended funding to the organization.
“They’ll come back to us with a plan for how they plan to overcome the fiscal improprieties that they’ve had and give us some assurances that these fiscal improprieties will never happen again,” said Scott Sylak, Executive Director of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County.
The employee became under investigation in December after board members reported she confessed during a meeting that she used the money for personal use.
13abc went to the home of the employee to get a comment, but she did not answer the door. We are not mentioning her name because she has not been charged yet.
We also checked with the City of Toledo to see whether Adelante received any Community Development Block Grant funding from the city. A spokesperson says the organization has not received any money for the last several years.
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