OC Woman Says She Did Not Steal $230K From Irvine Job

IRVINE, CA — A 36-year-old Anaheim woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $230,000 from her Irvine employer six years ago.

Elaine Chavez was charged Nov. 4 with grand theft by embezzlement with a sentencing enhancement for aggravated white collar crime between $100,000 and $500,000.

Chavez was an executive administrative coordinator for Motoman Robotics when she was accused of using a company credit card for five years for personal expenditures, investigator Kristi Valentine with the Orange County District Attorney's Office said in court papers. The defendant was accused of illegally using the company credit card for five years until she was fired in 2022, Valentine said.

Investigators pegged the alleged loss to the company at $233,897, Valentine said.

Chavez was accused of using the company credit card at stores such as Amazon, E-bay, PayPal, Target and Quinn Company for "personal purchases and vehicle-related purchases, often shipping them to her home address and using her personal Amazon account with the company card for payment," Valentine said.

Some of the purchases were used to rebuild a Chevy vehicle as well as for "high-end Louis Vuitton bags, Apple products, Disney gift cards, and Quinn Co. ... machinery," the investigator said.

Bail was set at $233,897 at Chavez's arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana, according to court records. She was next due in court Dec. 8 for a pretrial hearing in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.