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Fairfax County has issued a 19-count indictment against an employee of a family-owned commercial real estate landlord in what prosecutors say is one of the largest embezzlement cases in the history of Virginia's most populous county.
Carlos Camacho of Kingstowne, Virginia, has been indicted for allegedly diverting $2M in rental income and loans from A&A Investments to himself. He faces 15 counts of embezzlement and four counts of forgery, per a release.
The indictment, issued by a grand jury last week, alleges that between June 2017 and December 2020, Camacho fraudulently took out loans on five commercial properties owned by A&A Investments and diverted their income to himself, The Washington Post reported. The four properties listed in the indictment are located in the Fairfax County section of Alexandria.
Camacho allegedly forged power-of-attorney documents to obtain the loans. Camacho reportedly has ties to the owners of A&A, who are now suing him for more than $500K in damages, according to the Post.
"I am committed to holding accountable those who prey on family-owned businesses, which are a key foundation in our community," Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano said in a statement. "Financial crimes are serious crimes that can devastate families and the businesses they own."
Michael Pritchard, an attorney with Hogan & Pritchard in Fairfax, was listed as the registered agent for A&A Investments LLC in December 2021. The LLC was first registered with the Virginia Secretary of State in 2013 to Juan Carlos Aranibar-Chinchilla of Alexandria, Virginia.
Pritchard didn't immediately respond to Bisnow's request for comment.
A&A's losses could in fact be higher than $2M, Descano told the Post — county prosecutors are still going through the company's bank records. Descano told DCist that the case is unusual because county embezzlement cases typically find hundreds of thousands of dollars missing, not millions.
Descano is a former federal prosecutor with experience in handling white-collar crime while working at the Department of Justice. He was elected to his current position in 2019.
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