Courtesy of Orange County District Attorney

Tracy Lynn Salcido, before the tears.

​Tracy Lynn Salcido, the former Orangewood Children's Foundation chief financial officer convicted of having stolen more than $780,000 in donations from the nonprofit, was sentenced to 12 years in state prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.2 million in restitution to cover her theft and attorney and accounting fees incurred by Orangewood.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald also denied the 40-year-old Yorba Linda resident's request to delay reporting for her prison sentence so she can spend the holidays with her youth soccer coach husband and two children.

Family is important to Salcido, whose hubby had also worked at United Retailer/United Convenience Stores, the business his father owns and whose accounts the Mrs. deposited 206 forged Orangewood checks into. She was the only person charged in the scheme, which her attorney blamed on extreme family pressures.

The Orange County Register reports that Salcido was tearful and apologetic at her sentencing.

"I am so very sorry for all that I have done, for taking advantage of my position, for hurting those that depended on me, for not making decisions in the best interests of Orangewood," says Salcido in veteran Register court reporter Larry Welborn's report.

She pleaded guilty to 206 felony counts of forgery, 20 felony counts of falsifying records, and sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime over $500,000 and loss over $150,000 and $100,000. 

Salcido was Orangewood's CFO between March 1999 and July 2005, during which she stole $780,000 from the Santa Ana nonprofit that shelters and supports children who are the victims of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. She was simultaneously the primary accountant for United Retailer/United Convenience Stores.

After forging the 206 Orangewood checks and depositing the money into the accounts of her father-in-law's business, she withdrew cash and used it for personal expenses. She tried to hide her theft by underreporting Orangewood donation revenue and overreporting the foundation's expenses.

The scheme began to unravel in August 2005 after an accounting supervisor discovered a forged check, which prompted a full audit of the foundation's finances that exposed Salcido's crimes.