Tax preparer sentenced for defrauding Bay Area woman of life savings
While working as a professional tax preparer, former IRS agent Elana Cohen-Roth befriended a client, a 66-year-old Sonoma County woman, according to a news release from the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office about the case.
After gaining access to the victim's financial information, Cohen-Roth told her that she could get better returns on her investments by entrusting the tax preparer with the money, promising she would invest it in real estate deals that would provide reliable, 'no risk' returns of 10% or more.
From December 2013 to September 2019, Cohen-Roth pitched 'investment opportunities' to the victim more than 20 times, in amounts ranging from $25,000 to $150,000 each. Each time, the victim liquidated investments and sent the resulting funds to Cohen-Roth, who she believed was investing the money on her behalf.
Instead, prosecutors ultimately discovered that Cohen-Roth was running 'a sophisticated Ponzi scheme' where she used the victim's money to pay off dividends to other people who she'd entrapped in the same scheme.
Cohen-Roth also used the funds to support a lavish lifestyle and make gifts to family members, prosecutors said.
By September 2019, Cohen-Roth had bilked the victim of all of her investments and persuaded her to take a reverse mortgage on her home, prosecutors said.
The Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2020 when the victim asked for some of the money back so that she could move to be near family. With no other victims, Cohen-Roth couldn't pay the woman back, and 'the entire scheme fell apart,' according to the DA's office.
Then 73 years old, the victim went from owning her own home and investments of about $1 million to being financially destitute and unable to pay for her minimal daily living expenses even as Cohen-Roth had lived comfortably on her money, prosecutors said.
The victim was devastated financially and emotionally by Cohen-Roth's deceit: The discovery that her trusted friend turned out to be a con artist who was just using her to satisfy her own greed was heart-wrenching, prosecutors said.
After a three-week trial, a Sonoma County jury convicted Cohen-Roth of 23 felony financial fraud charges, which could have carried a sentence of up to 28 years in prison.
Judge Paige Hein handed down a 12-year sentence Friday due to Cohen-Roth's advanced age, but acknowledged the severe harm her behavior caused to the victim's physical and emotional health, according to the DA's office.
District Attorney Carla Rodriguez, in a statement, called the sentence 'entirely appropriate' and said she hopes it will provide some sense of justice to the victim.
'The victim's years of hard work and lifetime savings are gone due to Ms. Cohen-Roth's greed,' Rodriguez said. 'Unfortunately, the victim will never be made whole financially and her life is forever impacted.'
The Sonoma County Public Defender's Office, which represented Cohen-Roth, was not available for comment Saturday morning.
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