SANTA ROSA, Calif. (CBS12) — Elana Cohen-Roth, an 80-year-old former IRS field agent, was found guilty Thursday of defrauding a 73-year-old Santa Rosa woman out of more than $1.5 million in a complex Ponzi scheme.
Cohen-Roth, who previously worked as a tax professional in the Los Angeles area, was charged with money laundering and financial elder abuse in Sonoma County Superior Court. The victim, a Santa Rosa woman, first alerted police in December 2020 after realizing she had invested significant sums with Cohen-Roth in what she believed to be “lucrative high-yielding investment opportunities.” Between 2013 and 2019, the victim made 24 transfers to Cohen-Roth, totaling over $1.5 million.
In a bid to continue the investments, the victim even took out a reverse mortgage on her home, eventually accumulating over $270,000 in debt. When the victim requested the liquidation of her investments, Cohen-Roth’s suspicious behavior prompted police involvement.
Following the victim’s report, Santa Rosa police initiated an investigation. In January 2021, detectives found evidence of financial abuse after executing search warrants at Cohen-Roth’s Southern California home and business. Despite her previous role as an IRS tax auditor, Cohen-Roth was working as an enrolled agent and tax return practitioner in Los Angeles at the time.
The investigation revealed that Cohen-Roth had defrauded numerous victims in different cities, accumulating an estimated $4.8 million through her Ponzi scheme. She was arrested in January 2022 with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department, and later released on bail.
Following her conviction, Cohen-Roth was immediately remanded into custody, facing 20 felony counts of financial elder abuse, three felony counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated white-collar crime.
