An executive assistant from California has confessed in a federal court to embezzling over $8.5 million from her employer’s businesses, using the stolen funds to fuel a lavish lifestyle in San Diego.
Ping ‘Jenny’ Gao, 55, residing in Point Loma, entered a guilty plea last Thursday to charges of wire fraud and money laundering, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to prosecutors, Gao systematically siphoned money from four corporate bank accounts associated with her employer, transferring the funds into accounts she had discreetly set up in her own name.
With the embezzled money, she indulged in extravagant purchases, including a $160,000 Porsche and a $2.9 million waterfront property boasting panoramic views of San Diego Bay and the downtown skyline.
In her plea deal, Gao admitted to using the misappropriated funds to acquire the luxury vehicle and the high-priced home, and she acknowledged transferring more than $1 million into her personal bank accounts.
Gao also confessed to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at upscale fashion retailers.
The scheme began to unravel when her employer noticed the missing money and sued her in San Diego Superior Court.
Instead of admitting wrongdoing, Gao doubled down. She claimed the plaintiff was a fraud and insisting the real owner of the companies in China had approved every transfer.
Ping ‘Jenny’ Gao, 55, admitted in federal court to stealing more than $8.5million from her employer and using the money to bankroll a lavish lifestyle in San Diego
The Point Loma executive assistant faces up to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering
To support that false narrative, prosecutors said she paid more than $100,000 to individuals in China to produce fake documents, which she then filed in court to fight a preliminary injunction.
She later admitted that she lied under oath during a deposition, falsely telling lawyers that the corporate accounts were actually her own.
When the case went to trial in September 2023, she took the stand again and repeated the falsehoods, claiming the funds came from her personal investments in China and that a company manager was merely helping her move money into the US through ‘underground banks’ to dodge Chinese currency controls.
Throughout the civil case, the Superior Court issued a series of orders barring Gao from spending, moving or dissipating the disputed funds.
According to prosecutors, she ignored them.
Even with those restrictions in place, Gao continued to push money overseas – including a $1.6million wire transfer to a bank account in Hong Kong.
After she lost the trial and the court’s preliminary injunction was made permanent, she still carried on unloading assets.
She sold the $160,000 Porsche to CarMax for $75,000, then turned a $70,000 cashier’s check from that sale into cash by swapping it with another individual, in direct violation of the court’s orders, prosecutors said.
Authorities estimate that more than $3.29million of the stolen money has either been blown or remains unaccounted for.
Gao splurged on a $160,000 Porsche and a $2.9million waterfront home overlooking San Diego Bay after siphoning funds from four corporate accounts
Gao entered her guilty plea on November 13, but news of the case was released later due to the federal government’s lapse in appropriations.
At sentencing, she faces a maximum of 30 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and an additional 20 years for concealment money laundering, along with fines totaling more than $500,000.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Patrick C. Swan.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Department of Justice’s director of media relations for comment.
