On Friday, Jeanine Pacioni, the district attorney for Monterey County, said that two women from Arizona have been charged with stealing more than $3 million from Taylor Farms.
The suspects, Karen Rodriguez, 38, and Elizabeth Vargas, 34, worked for Automated Harvesting, LLC from 2019 to 2023 in the HR department, according to the District Attorney’s office.
The district attorney’s office says that during this time, the two women wrote and cashed hundreds of fake checks made out to former workers who had left the company and returned to Mexico.
The DA’s office says that Vargas has been charged with 15 counts of Grand Theft by Embezzlement and Rodriguez with 14 counts of the same crime.
When Taylor Farms found out about the theft in 2023, officers from Salinas Police Department looked into it before the District Attorney’s Office got involved.
There were arrest warrants out for Vargas and Rodriguez on October 11, according to the people who spoke to the newspaper.
Then, Rodriguez was caught at the San Luis Port of Entry in Yuma, Arizona, on October 16. The DA’s office says Vargas was caught during a traffic stop in Somerton, Arizona, on October.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office wants the suspects to be brought back to Monterey County on bail of $200,000. Anyone with more information should call the DA’s office at 831.755.5070.
