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Copyright © 2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE – The former chief financial officer for the now defunct Ayudando Guardians Inc. was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Monday evening for her role as the “engine” in a massive years long conspiracy that siphoned more than $11 million from hundreds of vulnerable clients in New Mexico and Arizona.

“The level of greed and excess is nothing short of staggering,” said U.S. District Judge Martha Vázquez, who sentenced former Ayudando executive Sharon Moore, 64, to spend the next two decades in federal prison. At the same time, the woman described during a marathon sentencing hearing as the “ringleader” of the conspiracy, Susan K. Harris, is apparently on the lam after failing to appear Monday to be sentenced along with Moore.

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At 9:50 a.m. Monday, Vázquez told the courtroom that she was issuing warrants for the arrest of Harris and her co-defendant husband, William Harris, after they failed to appear at the 9:30 a.m. hearing. Attorneys for Susan Harris, the former president and founder of Ayudando, and her husband, who worked as a guardian at the nonprofit firm, told the judge they had spoken with their clients on Friday and expected them to appear.

Vázquez continued the hearing anyway, taking testimony from numerous victims and recounted some of the letters she received from among the near 1,000 victims of the conspiracy in which she said the defendants decided to “steal as much as they could” in a “calculated, systematic scheme that continued for the better part of a decade.” Employee whistleblowers who noticed irregularities beginning in 2016 instigated the federal investigation that led to the indictment of Harris, her husband, son Craig Young and Moore in 2017.

It was unclear late Monday when Young will be sentenced. Also unknown were the whereabouts of Harris and her husband, who Vázquez said have homes in the exclusive gated community of Tanoan in Albuquerque and in Arizona and California.

Court records show the Harris couple remained free pending sentencing after surrendering their U.S. passports and putting one of their homes in Tanoan up as security.

Moore’s attorney Jason Bowles told the judge his client “could have been a coward” but opted to show up for the sentencing.

“Susan Harris got the lion’s share of the (stolen) money but she didn’t even have the respect to come here to court today to listen to what happened to the (victims) families and face what she had coming,” Bowles said.

Susan Harris was facing a possible 30 years to life in prison after she pleaded guilty to 22 criminal charges last July, including mail fraud and money laundering. Her husband pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and faced a recommendation from federal prosecutors of seven years in prison.

Vázquez said a 2½-year forensic investigation by federal authorities showed the four defendants used client savings accounts and trust funds to pay for leases on personal Mercedes Benz and BMW vehicles, while Harris took celebrity cruises with her family to the Caribbean several times. The lavish purchases included spending a total of $304,863 in client funds to pay for a private luxury suite to watch University of New Mexico basketball games, where their catering tabs ranged from $3,000 to $5,000 per game.

The funds siphoned came from legal settlements, Social Security and Veterans benefits that clients received, but couldn’t manage because of disabilities or other special needs. They relied on Ayudando to pay their bills and keep their savings safe, the judge said. Ayudando was also the court-appointed guardian or conservator for some clients.

Assistant U.S. attorney Jeremy Peña told the judge that although Susan Harris distributed the clients’ funds for personal purposes, “nothing was on Susan Harris’ table if Sharon Moore hadn’t transferred it from client and petty cash accounts.”

Ayudando, Spanish for helping, was one of the state’s largest guardian and financial services firms before it was shuttered by federal authorities in August 2017 after the embezzlement was exposed.

Vázquez told Moore that many victims of the fraud couldn’t be in court for her sentencing, others simply cannot be found and may be living on the streets or dependent on relatives because the theft “drained their life savings.”

“There are individuals who didn’t even have family members that kept in touch, which of course made it easier for them to be taken advantage of,” the judge said. Some had no one else but Ayudando Guardians to make sure they were “OK,” she said.

“I was surprised at how many clients (who became victims in the scheme) had no one but you,” Vázquez told Moore. “The harm this case has caused is unspeakable.”

She said she would issue a separate restitution order, but noted the Social Security Administration and the VA have reimbursed some victims. The two federal agencies selected Ayudando as a representative payee to manage funds and pay bills for beneficiaries.