Former Santa Cruz County Treasurer, Democrat Elizabeth Gutfahr, pleaded guilty last week to charges that she embezzled and laundered approximately $38 million from Arizona taxpayers. Gutfahr, who served as County Treasurer from 2012 to 2024, also failed to pay income tax on over $13 million while serving in a position of public trust.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ), Gutfahr embezzled and laundered the money while in office through a scheme of wiring funds form Santa Cruz County’s account directly to the accounts of various ‘shell companies.’ She had created the companies explicitly for the purposes of defrauding the county and ultimately transferring those funds to her personal bank account.
To say that Gutfahr’s use of the funds was blatant and extravagant may be an understatement. According to the DOJ she used the taxpayers’ millions to purchase real estate, renovate her family’s ranch, pay her company’s operating expenses, and buy at least twenty vehicles.
Court documents reveal that Gutfahr accomplished this feat through an astonishing series of about 187 wire transfers she “completed by subverting the two-step approval process for the wire transfers by using the token of a subordinate Santa Cruz County employee.” This method allowed her to both create and approve the transfers. The prosecution also revealed that to cover her tracks, “Gutfahr falsified accounting records, cash reconciliation records, and reports of the County’s investment accounts to conceal the millions of dollars that she had stolen from Santa Cruz County.”
Former Arizona Elected Official Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement of More than $38M of County Funds
The head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, said in a statement, “Elizabeth Gutfahr stole $38 million from the people of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, during the 12 years she served as their County Treasurer. We expect public officials to serve as stewards of the government fisc — not to loot it. Today’s plea demonstrates yet again that the Justice Department remains committed to rooting out public corruption at all levels of government.”
Former Santa Cruz County Treasurer Elizabeth Gutfahr took a guilty plea Thursday morning to federal charges of embezzling, money laundering and tax evasion.@csmithKGUNTV reporting from Tucson Federal Court: https://t.co/Ug5ekg56gc . pic.twitter.com/gMjNCQbI0t
“I wire transferred the Santa Cruz County funds from the County’s Savings Account and Checking Account for the purpose and as an essential part of carrying out the scheme to defraud to fraudulently obtain the funds for my personal use, all without authorization,” Gutfahr said, according to court documents cited by CNN. “I agree I owe restitution in the amount of $38,712,100.00.”
“These account names were materially false and fraudulent representations to intentionally conceal the fact that I was wire transferring Santa Cruz County funds to my Wells Fargo and BMO Accounts to embezzle the County’s funds,” Gutfahr stated per the terms of her plea agreement.
In a statement to KGUN9, Gutfahr’s attorney wrote, “Liz Gutfahr wants to take responsibility for the harm she has caused to Santa Cruz County. She knows that by pleading guilty, and accepting the punishment she will face as a result, she is taking a step in the right direction to be accountable for her actions. Today was just a step, albeit a major one, along the road to redemption, and she will work to remain on that path for the rest of her life.”
The disgraced Democrat pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement by a public official, one count of money laundering, and one count of tax evasion. Her sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 6, 2025, and she could face up to ten years in prison for embezzlement, 20 years for money laundering, and another five for tax evasion. All told, she could face 35 years in prison. Gutfahr will also be required to pay restitution to the county as well as tax penalties. However, as reported by KGUN, a court-appointed receiver working to sell off real estate and property reported the courts may only be able to recover about one-third of the loss. She has also been sued in civil court by Santa Cruz County in an attempt by the county to recover the funds.
Gutfahr was released on her own recognizance pending sentencing but is prohibited from leaving the state of Arizona without prior clearance from the court.
Arizonans enacted a major incentive for local governments to address homelessness.
Voters approved Proposition 312, which requires local governments to compensate its property and business owners for damages caused by the homeless. Governor Katie Hobbs certified the proposition on Monday alongside all other election results.
Proposition 312 would secure compensations through a refund on property tax payments up to an amount matching costs incurred by local government’s “failure to enforce laws and ordinances prohibiting illegal camping, loitering, obstructing public thoroughfares, panhandling, public urination or defecation, public consumption of alcoholic beverages, and possession or use of illegal substances.”
Should the cost of damages exceed the property tax bill, the proposition gives the owner the right to apply for a refund from their next property tax payment(s) in perpetuity until that initial balance is paid.
“Property owners would be eligible annually for refunds until the taxing entity begins enforcing the relevant public nuisance laws,” stated the ballot summary.
Policy experts anticipate the Arizona proposition to inspire other cities to adopt a similar policy.
The Goldwater Institute, which crafted Proposition 312, said in a statement on Monday that the measure provided another tool in addressing the homeless crisis facing Phoenix and major cities in other states. Victor Riches, Goldwater Institute’s senior communications manager, said in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal that the proposition should serve as sufficient motivation for local elected officials to act with more urgency.
“Proposition 312 should be a wake-up call for elected officials forcing law-abiding businesses and residents to pay the price for a crisis they didn’t create,” said Riches. “The message to politicians couldn’t be clearer: Do your job. Enough is enough.”
Riches identified Phoenix and its infamous downtown area unofficially cordoned off for the homeless (“The Zone”) as a prime example of the “government malfeasance” that allowed the adverse effects of homelessness on properties and businesses in the area.
“Property values plummeted in the Zone. Small businesses suffered. People lost their livelihoods as dozens of business owners had no choice but to close up shop,” said Riches. “And even as the city spent over $180 million to address the crisis (only a fraction of which is publicly accounted for), the number of homeless people in Phoenix rose 92% between 2018 and 2023.”
Nearly 59 percent of voters (1.8 million votes) approved Proposition 312. The legislative vehicle for the proposition, HCR 2023, passed in both chambers with bipartisan support earlier this year.
Major leftist organizations said in their arguments against Proposition 312 that the cities and counties shouldn’t face financial punishment for the acts of the homeless, and reduced tax revenue would hinder funding for community assistance geared toward homelessness.
Among those to oppose Proposition 312 were Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, Opportunity Arizona, Fuerte Arts Movement, Living United for Change in Arizona, and the ACLU of Arizona.
The Common Sense Institute Arizona (CSI) found in a report released last month that the proposition would likely improve property values.
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With Democrat Commissioner Anna Tovar absent, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) voted 4-0 vote on Friday to direct its Office of General Counsel to launch an investigation into alleged legal and ethical violations by Tovar.
The vote was conducted during a Staff Open Meeting and addressed specific allegations of ACC Code of Ethics and Arizona Administrative Code violations.
At the start of the meeting, Chairman Jim O’Connor said he couldn’t “help but share that I’m disappointed in Commissioner Tovar,” for not “hav(ing) the courtesy to show up,” after she reportedly indicated she would do so. “It’s very, very disappointing,” he added.
The Commission then entered into Executive Session for approximately thirty minutes before returning to the public-facing meeting.
Upon returning to the public meeting O’Connor announced, “It is with a deeply troubled heart that I will now make a motion to authorize our Office of General Counsel to undertake an official inquiry to determine whether Commissioner Tovar and her office staff have violated our code of ethics as amended to include the code of conduct, the Arizona State statutes, and the Arizona Administrative Code regarding: interference in and disclosure of confidential personnel-related information and whether she or her staff have harassed public servants of the State of Arizona employed here at the commission.”
He then directed General Counsel Tom Van Flein: “With respect to two things: that that would go back to include, the examination, all the way back to last year with respect to J.P. Martin in terms of potential harassment there, to investigate that. To do that expeditiously and return to the commission in ten days with a recommendation.”
According to Juan ‘JP’ Martin’s LinkedIn profile, he served as Legislative Liaison & Public Information Officer to the ACC from January to December 2023 before leaving the commission to become Deputy Communications Director to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
Van Flein said in a statement that the ACC Office of General Counsel will begin the investigation immediately and complete the inquiry on behalf of the Commission within ten days. This would put completion of the probe on or about December 2nd or 3rd.
Tovar, formerly an Arizona State Senator and Senate Minority Leader, announced in February that she would not seek reelection. She is due to step down from the Commission in January 2025.
Announcing her decision in a post to X at the time, Tovar wrote, “The current Corporation Commission needs a shake-up to gain renewed focus on actually serving the people of our State and that’s why I will not be seeking a second term on the Commission. I look forward to doing all I can to support candidates who will bring new voices and perspectives to this vital work.”
Tovar is the only Democrat presently serving on the commission. Along with current Chairman Jim O’Connor, she will be replaced by newly elected Republican commissioners Rene Lopez and Rachel Walden in January.
Before serving on the commission and in the Senate, Tovar served as a member of the Arizona House and Mayor of Tolleson after working as an educator.
AZ Free News reached out to Commissioner Tovar requesting comment, however, she did not reply by the time of publishing this article.
A Chandler High School alum and co-captain of Utah State University women’s volleyball team, Kaylie Ray, has reportedly joined a lawsuit with others players from the University of Wyoming, San Jose State University (SJSU), the University of Nevada, and Boise State University.
The group is suing the Mountain West Conference (MWC) and its commissioner, claiming that the conference compelled them to compete with a biological male ‘transgender’ athlete, “stealth-edited its rules to stifle their free speech,” and violated the federal Title IX law.
According to Cowboy State Daily, the lawsuit comes after a San Jose University student, Blaire Fleming, was added to the team as an outside hitter. Fleming, a biological male, is now ranked as the top hitter on the team.
The outlet reported that four schools, in addition to the University of Wyoming, have canceled matches against the SJSU team after outcry from players and university community members expressing concerns over fairness and safety of the female players.
In the text of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that the conference drafted a new rule “hastily,” to mark the cancellations as forfeited losses.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote, “The burgeoning controversy, which Commissioner Nevarez apparently believed could lead women’s volleyball players and teams to exercise their constitutional rights to protest and boycott, caused the commissioner and her staff to hastily draft and post on the MWC website a policy designed to penalize First Amendment protests supporting the rights of women’s volleyball players in the MWC.”
They add, “This new MWC policy was clearly intended to chill and suppress the free speech rights of women athletes in the MWC.”
The players are represented by Attorney Bill Bock and the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), who filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Colorado. Bock told reporters in a statement, “The NCAA, Mountain West Conference, university presidents and college athletic directors around the country are failing women. Because the administrators don’t have the courage to do their jobs, we must ask the federal courts to do their jobs for them.”
Teammates of the ‘transgender’ player are also claiming SJSU defrauded them because they joined the school and the team without prior knowledge that they would be playing with, boarding at times, and competing for scholarships against a biological male. The plaintiffs also argue that their rights under the First 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were violated, the right to bodily privacy, discrimination, retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination among others.
Fleming became the subject of national attention in October when he spiked the ball during a match, striking SDSU junior Keira Herron in the face with brutal force and knocking the player to the floor. “Keira Herron has some pink in her hair and her face is starting to look like she’s matching that as obviously she took the contact,” a broadcast announcer said in the now viral video.
In the complaint, a player named Brooke Slusser “estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball.” The complaint goes on to explain that, “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”
Male player from San Jose State @SanJoseStateVB, Blaire Fleming, leads his team to victory against Iowa @IowaVolleyball.
Look how high he jumps. Look at the speed of the ball.
Women’s sports activist and college swimmer Riley Gaines shared video of Fleming’s spike in a post to X, writing, “Male player from San Jose State @SanJoseStateVB, Blaire Fleming, leads his team to victory against Iowa @IowaVolleyball. Look how high he jumps. Look at the speed of the ball. Not only is this unfair, it’s dangerous.”
Cochise County approved the election results, despite their hand count audit failing to count nearly 60 percent of the required number of ballots.
The Cochise County Board of Supervisors accepted and certified their canvass during a brief special meeting on Wednesday.
The county’s election director, Marisol Renteria, presented the canvass alongside Joe Casey. Casey said that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre gave election officials permission to certify the election despite the incorrect hand count total.
“On November 19, it was brought to our attention that there was an incorrect calculation done on the number of hand counts for early voters but at this time we had contacted the secretary of state and county attorney’s office and we’re in agreement that we are ready to certify the election,” said Casey.
Casey noted that the discrepancies found within their undercounted hand count audit were within the “acceptable margin of error.” Indeed, Fontes’ office has marked the status of the county’s hand count as “completed,” having discrepancies “within the acceptable margin.”
None of the supervisors questioned or challenged the audit undercount, contributing to the brevity of the meeting at just seven minutes long.
My Herald Review first reported on the county’s failure to audit all the required ballots.
Hand count audits ensure the accuracy of the machine ballot counting.
The report from the county’s election director, Marisol Renteria, showed that the county audited only 200 ballots rather than the nearly 500 required. State law requires auditing one percent of the total number of cast early ballots. Cochise County based their one percent off of the initial batch of early ballots tabulated on Election Day, rather than the total number of early ballots cast.
Casey noted that the county experienced other issues during the election as well. This included vote center wait times reaching well over two hours, a bomb threat on Election Day at vote center two, and a power outage on November 13 lasting about five hours.
“We did deal with some challenges, some abnormalities and some incidents throughout the last few weeks,” said Casey.
Supervisor Peggy Judd — who made the motion to accept the results — thanked the elections staff, and added that they weren’t at fault for the election issues, including the recently-discovered audit undercount.
“No one can be blamed, it was just something that was going to happen. It would have happened to anyone. I’m glad it wasn’t me,” said Judd.
Judd and fellow supervisor Tom Crosby faced indictments for felony-level election interference and conspiracy over their delaying certification of the 2022 election results. Judd and Crosby maintained concerns over election equipment malfunctions that occurred and desired a complete audit of in-person election day ballots.
Last month, Judd pleaded guilty to election interference and entered into a plea deal for a misdemeanor, avoiding the felony punishments: 90 days’ minimum unsupervised probation and a $500 fine.
Supervisor Ann English commended the elections staff for finding solutions to the problems presented during the election. English remarked that this time around, the county had “an efficient, effective election.”
This election, the county had 82,200 registered voters, with a 72 percent voter turnout (almost 60,000 voters).
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Thanksgiving dinner will cost less than it did last year, but it will still be harder on your wallet than before President Joe Biden took office.
Per the Farm Bureau’s annual analysis of Thanksgiving dinner staple costs, the price reduction of nearly five percent from last year is “moderate” and not near enough to undo the “dramatic increase” that occurred two years ago.
A Thanksgiving meal still costs 20 percent more than it did in 2019: about $58 for a feast for 10 this year. Last year, the same meal size cost about $61, and in 2022, it cost about $64.
This annual Thanksgiving dinner survey relies on shoppers across 50 states and Puerto Rico to survey their local grocery store’s prices for classic feast items: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, peas, cranberries, celery, carrots, pumpkin pie ingredients, whipping cream, and milk.
The “moderate” price reduction only occurred with some of these classic holiday foods — others rose in price. Costs were lower for turkey, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots and celery, pumpkin pie mix, pie crusts, and milk, but costs were higher for dinner rolls, cranberries, whipping cream, and stuffing.
The reason for prices of certain items going up while others have gone down has to do with the type of item. Increases occurred mainly in processed products due to nonfood inflation and labor shortages driving up costs for partners across the food supply chain. An exception occurred for fresh cranberries, but the 12 percent price increase is considered a stabilization of pricing after an 18 percent decline from 2022 to 2023. The Farm Bureau noted that, even with the price increase and adjusting for inflation, fresh cranberries have their lowest cost since 1987.
The average costs are as follows: $25.67 for a 16-pound turkey, $2.35 for 12 ounces of fresh cranberries, $2.93 for three pounds of sweet potatoes, 84 cents for half-pound of carrots and celery, $1.73 for 16 ounces of green peas, $3.40 for two nine-inch pie shells, $4.08 for 14 ounces of cube stuffing, $4.16 for one pack of dinner rolls, $4.15 for 30 ounces of pumpkin pie mix, $3.21 for one gallon of whole milk, and $1.81 for one-half pint of whipping cream.
The Farm Bureau also reported significant cost disparities based on region. Those in the Western states face at least 14 percent higher costs for a Thanksgiving dinner for 10, or $67. Comparatively, those in the Southern states have the lowest cost: $56 for a party of 10. The Northeastern states will have an average cost of $57, and the Midwestern states will have an average cost of nearly $59.
Those price disparities grow much more when adding less-traditional Thanksgiving favorites: ham, Russet potatoes, and green beans. Southerners, Northeasterners, and Midwesterners would only pay anywhere from $81 to $83 to add those favorites to their dinners. However, Westerners would have to pay over $93 for the same spread.
Farmers take the biggest brunt of inflation, experiencing lower and more volatile prices. The USDA projects that national net farm income will fall by $6.5 billion this year.
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