Tracii Show-Hutsona, 52, of Phoenix, Arizona allegedly used her position as Joumana Kidd’s personal assistant to funnel money from Kidd’s personal financial accounts, including her children’s college savings accounts, into her own to fund a lavish lifestyle, according to a criminal complaint filed with the Southern District of New York.
The criminal complaint says that Kidd hired Show-Hutsona in October 2015 to serve as a personal assistant at her home in California. At the time, Kidd agreed to pay Show-Hutsona’s company, Elite Luxury Lifestyles, a monthly fee for her services. As a personal assistant, Kidd afforded Show-Hutsona access to her financial information.
Three years later, in September 2018, Kidd’s financial advisor informed Kidd that she was spending significant amounts of money. Kidd confronted Show-Hutsona, who confessed to the theft and agreed to repay the nearly $310K that had been stolen up to that point.
But that didn’t stop Show-Hutsona who continued to defraud Kidd until 2019, when the theft ballooned to a whopping $1.4M.
The subsequent investigation revealed that Show-Hutsona had used the money for personal expenses, such as mobile phones, restaurants and nightclubs, luxury hotels, and jewelry.
According to prosecutors, Show-Hutsona faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for one count of wire fraud, and a mandatory two years in prison for one count of aggravated identity theft.
Would a Pre-Employment Background Screening Have Prevented the three-year fraud?
The answer is a resounding yes. Dubbed a “serial con artist” in the SDNY press release, a pre-employment background check would have immediately revealed that Show-Hutsona was convicted in 2008 in federal court for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the same charges she now faces.
As this case shows, professional pre-employment background screenings are an essential, economical, and effective way to protect yourself and your business from bad actors who prey upon trusting and unsuspecting victims. Contact us to find out how Integrity 1 Solutions can help protect what’s important to you. Email: [email protected] or call 212.229.0907.
Read more at: https://nypost.com/2021/02/19/guru-stole-more-than-1m-from-moms-college-funds-for-her-kids-feds-say/
