Former Assistant Pleads Guilty to $10 Million Fraud Against Retired Banker

Catalina Corona, a former personal assistant in New York, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud for orchestrating a multi-million dollar theft from her employers, Richard and Priscilla Schmeelk. The scheme involved the use of fraudulent checks and the impersonation of her employers to drain their accounts. The fraud spanned from 2017 to 2024. Richard Schmeelk, a retired executive from Salomon Brothers and co-founder of CAI Managers, passed away in May 2022, but court records indicate that Corona continued to loot the accounts of his widow following his death. Prosecutors revealed that Corona utilized the stolen funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle. Expenditures included more than $1 million at Louis Vuitton, hundreds of thousands of dollars at Cartier and Gucci, and approximately $305,000 on Apple merchandise. The theft was first detected in April 2024 when a bank representative flagged a suspicious check for $1,500. Corona now faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 30 years. This case underscores a significant rise in financial exploitation of seniors; according to the FBI, elder fraud resulted in nearly $5 billion in losses across more than 147,000 complaints in 2024 alone.