DA: Former CEO embezzled funds
Deal includes apology, restitution
SANTA FE -- The former CEO of the group that puts on the annual Santa Fe Indian Market has admitted embezzling money from a charity fundraising effort and can have his criminal charges dropped if he pays restitution and successfully completes probation.
That’s according to Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna, who also said John Torres Nez, 51, is entering a pre-prosecution agreement after admitting embezzling thousands of dollars from the fundraiser. Money from sale of items donated by Indian artists was supposed to go a Red Cross fund to aid victims of the 2011 tsunami that struck Japan.
Although Torres Nez is not legally pleading guilty to the charges, Serna said that as part of the arrangement he must give a full admission to a pre-prosecution diversion officer from the District Attorney’s Office, pay $36,918 in restitution within two months, write a public apology and serve two years of probation under supervision the District Attorney’s Office.
Serna said the charges can be refiled if Torres Nez doesn’t meet those terms and that his office will have a written admission on file if Torres Nez is charged again. An attorney for Torres Nez couldn’t be reached for comment.
Torres Nez was indicted on two counts of embezzlement for taking money from the fundraiser from April 2011 to January 2012. Some of the donating artists contacted State Police in October 2014 and voiced concerns over where the money went.
Torres Nez pleaded not guilty in June after a roughly 1½-year investigation by State Police. A police search warrant affidavit said there was no sign that money from the art sales was transferred from the PayPal account of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which puts on Indian Market, to the intended Red Cross fund. Torres Nez was an administrator with SWAIA at the time of the fundraiser and later became CEO. He subsequently left and helped start the rival Indigenous Fine Art Market.
The police affidavit said SWAIA’s financial administrator determined that the money from the fundraiser went into a bank account Torres Nez used to collect his SWAIA paycheck.