APS board member denies role in embezzlement
Maestas says daughter’s drug problem is ‘directly related’ to issues at state charter school
An Albuquerque Public Schools board member who was the executive director of a state charter school where authorities suspect her daughter embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars maintains she knew nothing about the scheme.
Analee Maestas instead pinned the blame on her daughter, Julieanne Maestas, saying her daughter has a “very serious” drug problem that is “directly related” to the alleged scheme to embezzle money from La Promesa Early Learning Center.
“Dr. [Analee] Maestas would never jeopardize her reputation or her long career in childhood education by participating in such a scheme,” her attorney, Marc M. Lowry, wrote in a statement to and other news media at 12:38 a.m. Wednesday.
was first to report Tuesday that Albuquerque police have tracked nearly $700,000 in losses, up from the more than $475,000 found in an initial review by the State Auditor’s Office, and that authorities are considering bringing charges against as many as three people, raising suspicions that the older Maestas could be facing prosecution.
Maestas maintained her innocence in the statement, saying she didn’t know school funds were being embezzled until the State Auditor’s Office issued its findings and that the auditor’s report “made no finding of wrongdoing by Dr. Maestas.”
A “risk review” conducted by the State Auditor’s Office found that Julieanne Maestas, who worked as the assistant business manager at the school, deposited more than 500 checks totaling more than $475,000 into her personal bank account.
Bank records indicate that Julieanne Maestas used the money for personal day-to-day expenses, bills and loan payments. The auditor’s office said the daughter apparently signed many of the checks over to herself through a process known as “dual endorsing.”
“Additionally, the employee deposited about $177,000 worth of checks that were payable to her mother … and her boyfriend, who was a vendor of the school,” the auditor’s office said last week in a press release. “The checks made payable to the employee’s mother and boyfriend may also have been fraudulently dual endorsed.”
The issue first came to light when La Promesa submitted a falsified invoice for reimbursement to the Public Education Department. The address on a carpet cleaning receipt had been changed from Analee Maestas’ home address to the address for the charter school.
Analee Maestas told auditors she had paid for the carpet cleaning services at the school in cash, but the owner of the carpet cleaning company said his companies “have never performed any services for La Promesa.” Analee Maestas showed auditors pictures of several rooms in her home without carpet, “but when questioned about additional rooms, she acknowledged that some rooms are indeed carpeted,” according to the auditor’s office.
The next year, a vendor for the school reported receiving a 1099 tax form showing more than $7,100 in checks he never received, prompting an investigation that revealed a pattern of “intentional and unauthorized diversions” of public funds totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the audi-
tor’s office.
Analee Maestas’ attorney said independent auditors hired by the state Public Education Department, as well as the school’s business manager and the principal, never “disclosed this problem to Dr. Maestas or anyone else.”
“The state auditor’s report does not claim that any of Julieanne’s supervisors, including Dr. Maestas, was aware of, or participated in, the purported scheme to embezzle school funds,” according to the statement.
Analee Maestas said she noticed her daughter became “extremely depressed” after she lost her job at the school last year.
“Concerned for her daughter’s welfare, Dr. Maestas sought medical treatment for Julieanne. Upon her admission to a medical facility, Dr. Maestas learned, for the first time, that Julieanne had developed a very serious substance abuse problem,” according to the statement. “Dr. Maestas’ attempts to enroll her daughter into a treatment program after that diagnosis were unsuccessful. Dr. Maestas now understands that Julieanne’s unresolved substance abuse problem is directly related to the issues highlighted within the state auditor’s report.”