Former Orange County School District Official Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Nearly $16 Million

The finance exec deposited checks from district accounts into his own accounts. The west Anaheim district is 81 percent low-income or disadvantaged.

Magnolia School District on West Orange Avenue in Anaheim in May 2022. Google Maps/Screenshot via California Insider

A former financial director for a California school district pleaded guilty to embezzling $15.9 million from the district over several years.

Jorge Armando Contreras, 53, on March 28 pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement, theft and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal funds, according to a statement from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.