AG Balderas Secures Guilty Plea Against Power of Attorney Accused of Financially Exploiting Nursing Home Resident and Defrauding State Medicaid Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 1, 2022
Contact: Jerri Mares – (505) 321-4372

Alamogordo, NM— Today, Attorney General Hector Balderas announced that Guadalupe Evelyn Kingston, who held power of attorney for a nursing home resident, pled guilty to Exploitation of a Resident’s Property (over $20,000.00), two counts of Forgery (each over $20,000.00), Identity Theft, and Falsification of Documents. Ms. Kingston represented to the Human Services Department that funds belonging to a nursing home resident were being held in a Medicaid trust, when in fact, no trust existed and Ms. Kingston was spending the funds on herself for trips, a car payment, spa visits, online dating, pet grooming, and other personal items. Ms. Kingston will be sentenced in approximately 60 days and she faces up to five years imprisonment in addition to payment of restitution of $84,094.44.

“Medicaid provides for almost half of all New Mexicans the ability to visit a doctor and afford needed medication, and it is appalling that any individual would steal from and exploit our most vulnerable for personal gain,” said Attorney General Balderas.

This case was investigated and prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU). MFCU receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $3,774,509 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2021-22, of which $2,830,884 is federally funded. The remaining 25 percent of the approved grant, totaling $943,625 for FY 2021-22, is funded by the State of New Mexico.

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