A federal grand jury indicted a San Francisco caregiver Tuesday on charges of tax evasion and filing false tax returns, according to federal prosecutors.
Elsie Eclevia Curameng, 68, made her initial appearance in federal court after the indictment, which was filed April 7 and unsealed Tuesday. She is accused of failing to report at least $1.5 million in income between 2019 and 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
From at least 2008 to 2022, Curameng worked as an in-home caregiver for a client identified in court filings as “G.C.” The indictment comes more than a year after Curameng was named in a lawsuit that claims she and other caregivers drained the bank account of onetime San Francisco millionaire Geraldine Clark, who died at age 91.
Curameng was in charge of taking care of Clark at her home, helping to bathe her, feed her and keep up the house, according to the lawsuit. She was also in charge of Clark’s finances, a position she allegedly used to pay herself and her colleagues, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
As a result, Clark was left with less than $200 in her investment account when she died at a Hayward nursing home in 2023, according to the lawsuit. Caregivers took more than $4 million from Clark, according to family members and the lawsuit, overpaying themselves by thousands of dollars using fraudulent checks.
The indictment alleges that Curameng filed tax returns during those years but omitted the income tied to her caregiving services. She is also accused of filing false tax returns in 2019 and 2020.
Curameng was released on bond and is scheduled to return to court on May 20 for a status conference before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer.
If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison and $100,000 fine for each count of tax evasion. She could also face up to three years in prison and pay a $100,000 fine for each count of filing a false tax return.
“I feel relief for my aunt,” Clark’s nephew, David Stewart, told the Chronicle on Tuesday.
Since the lawsuit was filed, Stewart said several people have reached out to him to ask how the alleged scam could have happened.
“You know, you don’t see it coming,” he said. “And I just feel like, for people that don’t think this could happen, it could.”
Prior to the charges, Stewart said he feared Curameng and other caregivers who worked with her would continue to take advantage of vulnerable people under their care.
“Because when you do what they did, to the magnitude they did to my aunt, they could do this to somebody for a couple of $100,000 without even batting an eyelid,” he said.