RIO RICO, Ariz. (KGUN) — There was more action Thursday in the case of the former Santa Cruz County Treasurer accused of taking more than 39 million dollars in County money.
A key player in the effort to get the money back had a look at Elizabeth Gutfahr’s real estate.
The civil lawsuit against former Santa Cruz County Treasurer Elizabeth Gutfahr has stepped out of the courtroom and onto her properties. She is accused of taking more than 39 million dollars in Santa Cruz taxpayer money. The lawsuit is designed to recover as much as possible, so a court appointed receiver now in control of her properties came out to inspect them.
A court appointed receiver came out to look at the properties he controls now under court order. It’s the receiver's job to be sure no one sells or hides anything that could have been bought with county money.
A Sheriff’s deputy and an investigator from the Santa Cruz County Attorney were there during the inspection but Santa Cruz County says they were there to maintain order, not to do any sort of criminal investigation. As of now Gutfahr is not facing any criminal charges.
This is video from an earlier hearing on the civil suit. Gutfahr’s attorney, Jonathan Saffer says she was at the ranch voluntarily during the inspection and co-operated with the process.
In a related development, Santa Cruz County has been fighting with the Arizona Auditor General over who dropped the ball in and allegedly let millions of dollars be embezzled before anyone noticed. The Auditor General claims Santa Cruz County failed to see red flags in the Treasurer’s reports. Santa Cruz County is threatening to sue the Auditor claiming it’s the auditor’s job to be the watch dog and it was napping through ten years of embezzlement.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
