The Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office announced on Friday that 49 charges related to financial fraud have been filed against Stefan Bernard DeWitte, a 38-year-old resident of Santa Barbara.
Officials say DeWitte allegedly stole over $1 million from three different individuals in total.
The 38-year-old's 49 counts include embezzlement, forgery, theft by false pretense, securities fraud, and money laundering, according to local representatives. The Santa Barbara resident is also allegedly charged with several special allegations for crime enhancement and money laundering.
The felony complaint filed on Friday outlines the details of the extensive counts charged against DeWitte.
Several offenses were committed toward a person identified in the complaint as Caroline DeWitte, including embezzlement of over $629,000, forgery of a grant deed to a property, forgery of a $260,000 investment contract, forgery of a shareholder agreement, theft by false pretense of $260,000, and a securities offering violation.
DeWitte's crimes also targeted California Pacific Reality, from which he forged a deed of trust and deceptively stole $185,000.
A person identified as Tanja Dewitte was the third victim of the Santa Barbara resident's crimes named in the document; officials say the suspect embezzled over $210,600 belonging to the victim, committed two thefts under false pretense valued at $60,000 and $20,000 respectively, and violated a securities offering.
In addition, Dewitte received several special allegations listed in the felony complaint as aggravated white-collar crime loss of more than $500,000, excessive loss of over $100,000, the indication of planning of the crimes committed, and three separate instances of laundering transactions exceeding $50,000 within a 30-day period.
The official document outlines the 37 different counts of money laundering allegedly executed by DeWitte, including the items and services he used stolen money to pay for. These individual charges range in value from $0.99 to $22,000, with a number of transactions being commonly attributed to Venmo transfers and services provided through Uber.
DeWitte is reportedly being held on $800,000 bail at the Santa Barbara County Jail. His case is set for arraignment on the complaint on Nov. 4 at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
