An El Dorado Hills woman who worked as an executive assistant to a retired Bay Area venture capitalist has pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento to stealing nearly $18 million from her employer over almost a decade and spending it on luxury handbags, Rolex watches, resort vacations and private-jet travel. Lizbeth Guadalupe Sherman, 47, pleaded guilty on Monday, November 2, to one count of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for the Eastern District of California announced.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
According to court documents cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Sherman was employed as an executive assistant and was specifically tasked with paying her employer's credit-card expenses. To do that job she was granted access to her employer's bank account — access prosecutors say she abused for years.
Between September 2015 and May 2025, Sherman stole nearly $18 million from her employer in order to pay off her own extravagant credit-card expenses, the Justice Department said. In that manner, prosecutors said, she spent tens of thousands of dollars on luxury handbags, Rolex watches, resort-level vacations, private-jet travel, vehicles, and improvements to a $2 million residence in El Dorado Hills, the affluent community in El Dorado County east of Sacramento.
Resold designer goods for cash — $450,000 on one platform alone
At some point, Sherman began reselling designer products that she had bought with her employer's money on online platforms, converting the purchases into cash, according to court documents. She earned more than $450,000 on one such platform over nine months in 2025 alone, prosecutors said.
In December 2025, law-enforcement officers executed a search warrant at her El Dorado Hills residence and recovered more than 1,500 luxury items, most in mint condition with their original packaging and tags intact, stored and displayed throughout the residence. In a closet, officers found dozens of Louis Vuitton handbags lining the top shelf, many pairs of Christian Louboutin boots, and a display case full of handbags made of exotic furs acquired with proceeds of the fraud scheme. Elsewhere in the house they located several other designer handbags, Rolex watches, and premium bottles of wine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
As part of her plea agreement, Sherman is subject to forfeiture and to restitution to her employer of nearly $18 million — essentially the full amount prosecutors say she stole between 2015 and 2025.
Who investigated the case
The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Program. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dhruv M. Sharma and Kevin C. Khasigian are prosecuting the case, the Justice Department said.
Why a case like this matters beyond one household
Prosecutors presented the case as a long-running abuse of trust inside a private household office: the person hired to pay the bills had direct access to the bank account, and the spending continued from 2015 to 2025 before the December 2025 search laid out the scale of the purchases. For readers, the verified lesson in the court record is narrow but practical — in this case, a single trusted employee with unchecked access was, according to her own guilty plea, able to move nearly $18 million over almost ten years.
What happens next
Sherman is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb on March 22, 2027. She faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables, the Justice Department said.
Source: FOX40 via BayAreaDailyNews