Utah woman sentenced to prison for financially exploiting 76 vulnerable people

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — A woman was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms on Tuesday after pleading guilty to six felonies in connection to the financial exploitation of 76 vulnerable adults.

According to the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Janine McCauley has been sentenced to two consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison as well as ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution payments.

McCauley pleaded guilty in February 2023 to five counts of unlawful dealing of property by a fiduciary and one count of pattern of unlawful activity, all second-degree felonies.

McCauley owned Simplified Business Solutions which acted as a fiduciary for 76 vulnerable people. This means the business was trusted to manage the financial needs of her clients, such as receiving their Social Security income and using it to pay their rent and other bills.

“Instead, McCauley comingled assets and used the funds for her own benefit and for the benefit of people other than the vulnerable individuals,” the Attorney General’s Office read.

This resulted in many of the victims coming into debt and being “unable to meet their own financial needs.”

“Protecting our state’s most vulnerable is one of our office’s greatest priorities,” said Attorney General Sean D. Reyes.

Reyes continued to say the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Division of the Utah Attorney General’s Office — which led the prosecution efforts — does a remarkable job at “finding and prosecuting the bad actors who have targeted individuals due to their life circumstances.”

“The exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens is antithetical to everything our state stands for,” said the division’s Director Kaye Lynn Wootton. “Stopping abuse like this is central to our office’s mission.”

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