For years, members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department lived a lavish lifestyle, luxuriating in Santa Ana dinners, West Hollywood bars and Las Vegas nightclubs. But the culprit was not the department’s salary, but her unsuspecting grandmother, authorities said.
Roxana C. Laub, 33, of Santa Ana, recently pleaded guilty to two felonies: check forgery and fraudulent use of a credit card in her grandmother’s name, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
She faces up to 30 years in federal prison for the bank fraud charge and up to 15 years in federal prison for the identity theft charge, according to the Justice Department. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 9, 2025.
Prosecutors said Laub, who works for the department as a uniformed corrections officer at the Orange County Jail, is accused of stealing his grandmother’s identity and savings over a five-year period.
According to prosecutors, from 2015 to 2017, she forged her grandmother’s signature on more than 20 checks in order to fraudulently deposit approximately $45,000 from her grandmother’s bank account into her own bank account.
Prosecutors say her 75-year-old grandmother had no idea what was happening.
During this time, Laub attempted to pose as his grandmother on phone calls with the bank in order to extract personal information regarding her grandmother’s accounts. After admitting she wasn’t her grandmother, she called her actual grandmother and told the bank employee she didn’t know about the check paid to Laub, prosecutors said.
Laub then took the phone from her grandmother and told the bank employee that she felt sick and could not talk to her anymore, even though the bank employee asked her to put it back, prosecutors said.
Then, from March 2020 to September 2022, Laub used his grandmother’s credit card for personal expenses, including meals at restaurants in Santa Ana and West Hollywood, bars in West Hollywood, and nightclubs in Las Vegas. He demanded thousands of dollars, prosecutors said. Prosecutors say she used her grandmother’s bank account to pay more than $14,000 on those credit card bills without her grandmother’s knowledge.
Prosecutors say Laub has shown some remorse for his actions, telling his family in a text thread released by authorities: “I know what I did was unforgivable.” He is said to have said. Prosecutors said Laub also agreed to repay all the money he stole from his grandmother.
These crimes were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Long Beach Police Department.
Assistance for financial fraud victims age 60 and older is available through the National Elder Fraud Hotline at (833) 372-8311.
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