Orange County Staffing Company Owner Arrested on Federal Indictment Charging Her with Masterminding $90 Million Tax Fraud

LOS ANGELES – An Orange County staffing company owner and three other defendants were arrested today on an eight-count federal indictment alleging they cheated the IRS out of more than $90 million and defrauded numerous clients by failing to pay employment taxes withheld from the wages of temporary workers – many of them illegal immigrants – and used the unpaid taxes to fund their luxurious lifestyles. Some of the defendants documented their extravagant lifestyles on Instagram and other social media.   

Lorena Padilla, 49, of Villa Park, the case’s lead defendant, is charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and six counts of failure to account for and pay over employment taxes. She is expected to make her initial appearance and be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in Santa Ana.

Also arrested and scheduled for arraignment today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles are:

• Selina Medina Preciado, 30, of Whittier, Padilla’s daughter;
• Carlos Padilla, 40, of Chino, Lorena Padilla’s brother; and
• Pablo Araque, 55, of Downey.

Two other defendants charged – Melanie Medina, 31, of Yorba Linda, who also is Lorena Padilla’s daughter; and Susana Cardenas, 45, of Long Beach – are expected to appear in federal court in the coming weeks. Law enforcement is looking for defendant Janine J. Garcia, 39, a.k.a. “Janette Ortega,” of Seal Beach.

Lorena Padilla controlled several businesses based in Los Angeles and Riverside counties: Platinum Staffing in Montebello, Payroll Staffing Solutions Inc. in Industry, Three Star Global Inc. in Corona, and Next Level Staffing in Maywood. These companies provided workers and human resources services to client businesses in various industries in the Los Angeles area. For all temporary workers staffed with clients, the companies claimed to provide payroll tracking, paycheck preparation and distribution, the withholding and payment of payroll taxes to federal and state authorities, the preparation and filing of quarterly federal employment tax returns, and the maintenance of valid workers’ compensation insurance.

According to the indictment that a federal grand jury returned on November 13, from January 2012 to September 2024, the defendants defrauded the staffing companies’ customers, the IRS, and California’s Employment Development Department (EDD), the California state agency responsible for collecting California employment taxes. 

To secure business for the companies, the defendants lied to potential customers that the companies would handle all employment taxes and workers’ compensation insurance on all temporary workers that the companies provided. In fact, the defendants caused the staffing companies to continuously fail to pay all applicable federal and state employment taxes. From January 2018 to 2023, the defendants paid workers’ compensation insurance premiums on only a small percentage of the staffing companies’ payroll.

To conceal their failure to report employee wages and taxes and pay employment taxes, Padilla, Garcia, Medina, and Preciado caused Next Level Staffing to hire large numbers of illegal aliens as temporary workers. The defendants anticipated the illegal immigrants would be less likely to file federal income tax returns and be less likely to alert the IRS to Next Level’s ongoing failure to account for and pay over employment taxes.

From 2020 to 2025 alone, the defendants collectively understated the staffing companies’ federal employment taxes by more than $44 million. Total losses to the United States Treasury from this scheme exceed $90 million.

Lorena Padilla and several other defendants used the ill-gotten gains for personal expenses and purchases, including a $3 million ranch in Riverside; a $2.5 million home in Whittier; a $3.5 million home in Yorba Linda; rental properties in Ontario and Corona; luxury family vacations in Hawaii, Tokyo, Paris, Dubai, Italy, and Aspen, Colorado; musical acts to perform at a joint birthday party for Preciado and Medina in October 2021; and luxury cars, such as Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud conspiracy count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the money laundering conspiracy, and up to five years in federal prison for each failure to pay employment tax count.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys James C. Hughes of the Major Frauds Section and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section, and Trial Attorney Dominick Giovanniello of the Tax Division are prosecuting this case.