Office manager convicted of stealing $1.4 million from Tahoe construction job
An office manager who prosecutors said stole $1.4 million from a family-owned South Lake Tahoe construction company where she worked was convicted in federal court in Sacramento on Wednesday of fraud and identity theft.
Kami Elois Power, 54, was convicted of 17 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, court records show.
The Gardnerville, Nevada, woman carried out an elaborate scheme to divert funds from the company over three-and-a-half years, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said in a news release. More than half of the funds were transferred as fake payments to vendors, or accounts in the names of real companies that were actually controlled by Power, Grant said.
She used the stolen money to pay down credit card balances, fund a $29,000 Hawaiian vacation and buy a horse. She also purchased two homes, several vehicles, ATVs and field-level seats for football games, Grant said.
The investigation began in 2023, when the South Lake Tahoe Police Department was contacted by an official at the construction company, who said they believed an employee had been embezzling from the business, city spokesperson Sheree Juarez said Friday.
The company identified Power as the employee who had been stealing money, Juarez said in a news release. The department began to investigate, and the case soon widened, becoming a “large scale, multi-agency, muti-jursdictional collaborative effort” involving South Lake Tahoe PD, the FBI and others, Juarez said.
Power faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each wire fraud count, and 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each of the three bank fraud counts. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence for each of the three counts.
She is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins on Feb. 27, court records show.
This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM.
