Clark County employee accused of stealing from estates of people who had died
A Clark County employee used her position to steal money from dead people whose estates were being administered by a county office, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. She allegedly used that money to pay down a credit card.
TinaTheresa Poto-Nunu, who worked for the Clark County Public Guardian’s Office, made her first court appearance Wednesday, according to a news release issued by the Department of Justice.
Poto-Nunu is accused of stealing over $27,000 from three Clark County residents who had died without a will, according to a grand jury indictment returned on Tuesday. The three late residents were only identified in the indictment as C.C., L.L., and R.S.
Their property and money was being administered by the Clark County Public Administrator. The Public Administrator secures and distributes the assets of those who die without a will to next of kin, and safeguards property when no heirs can be located.
According to the news release and the indictment, Poto-Nunu used her job to to “fraudulently and unlawfully exceed her authority to access the CCPA database that contained the personal and financial identity information associated with the estates of the decedents.”
She used that information to obtain money from the accounts, the indictment alleged.
Poto-Nunu wire transferred $7,360.77 from a bank account to a Discover credit card in September 2021; $10,143.26 in April 2022; and $10,225.15 in June 2022, according to the indictment.
According to the news release, Poto-Nunu used the stolen money “to pay down a credit card account she used for her personal expenses such as travel and rent.”
The alleged scheme to defraud began sometime before Jan. 13, 2021, the indictment said, and lasted until about February 2024.
The indictment charged Poto-Nunu with one count of money laundering and another two counts of money transactions in criminally derived property.
If convicted on all counts, she faces a maximum of 40 years in federal prison and a $750,000 fine.
The Public Administrator’s office has been subjected to more intense scrutiny and attention in recent years since the 2022 arrest of Robert Telles, the former public administrator.
Telles was sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 28 years in 2024 for murdering Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German, who had written stories outlining allegations of malfeasance against Telles while Telles was overseeing the office.
The allegations against Poto-Nunu call to mind other high profile cases involving guardians in Southern Nevada.
In 2019, former guardian April Parks was sentenced to 16 to 40 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to exploitation, theft and perjury charges after she was indicted for swindling many of the elderly and infirm in their care, the Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported. She had originally faced more than 200 felony counts.
According to the indictment, Parks had used her position and her company, A Private Professional Guardian, LLC, “to steal funds belonging to elderly and disabled persons over whom they had guardianship authority,” the Review-Journal previously reported.
Contact Kevin J. Barr at kbarr@reviewjournal.com. Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com
