Phoenix – The 63-year-old woman who served as treasurer for Santa Cruz County in southern Arizona has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, authorities said.

The judge declared Elizabeth Gutfar on Monday of embezzling about $38.7 million. US Lawyers’ Office in the Arizona Area.

For more than a decade, Gutfahr will use her position to transfer public funds to an account in the name of a fake company she created, prosecutors said.

She then used stolen taxpayer dollars to purchase property and at least 20 vehicles, renovated the family’s ranch and paid the cow business.

How did Arizona women avoid a lot of money from the county?

According to prosecutors, Gutfahr conducted 187 wire transfers by bypassing the required two-stage approval process.

She did this using her subordinate’s security tokens, allowing her to initiate and approve transactions.

She will also modify accounting records, cash settlement statements and investment account reports to hide theft of millions of dollars from county funds, prosecutors said.

How the Treasury Secretary hurts Santa Cruz County

Santa Cruz County officials said Guffer’s crimes had a major negative impact on the county’s ability to provide critical services through local schools and fire districts.

“We would have wanted the maximum sentence to more accurately reflect the severity of the crime and act as a stronger deterrent,” the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors said. said in a statement.

The board said that only about $5 million of the $38.7 million she stole was recovered and returned to the stolen public services.

“What’s most important to us now is to recover losses on behalf of the people of Santa Cruz County and restore public trust in our agencies,” the board’s statement said. “We remain committed to moving forward with transparency and accountability.”

County officials expect to recover somewhere between $10 million and $12 million through property confiscation.