SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – It has been almost one year since Tamara Wallace wrote a letter to South Tahoe Now, admitting to the public that she took funds from her employer, Lake Tahoe Presbyterian Church.

“This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am publicly admitting that I took funds from the Presbyterian Church over an extended period,” stated Wallace. “Because of this, on September 11, 2025, my birthday, I tried to end my life. I was so filled with guilt, shame, and grief that I experienced a mental health crisis that made suicide seem to be the best solution. It was only by the grace of God that I failed.”

Since then, the case has been with the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, the El Dorado County District Attorney, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Wire fraud charges require a long investigation, frustrating many residents of South Lake Tahoe.

On Tuesday afternoon, the United States Attorney charged Wallace with one count of wire fraud of $390,000.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said that when wire fraud charges are filed with them, it indicates that a defendant has waived their right to a grand jury and may at some point plead guilty.

According to the charges, “Beginning no later than April 2019 and continuing through in or about September 2025, in the State and Eastern District of California and elsewhere, Wallace knowingly devised, intended to devise, participated in, and executed a material scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, omissions, and the concealment of material facts. The purpose of the scheme and artifice to defraud was for Wallace to unlawfully enrich herself by embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Church 1.”

In the United States versus Tamara Le Ann Wallace document obtained by South Tahoe Now, a total of almost $390,000 was embezzled from the church from “at least in or around April 2019 through in or around September 2025 through reimbursement checks made out to herself and electronic transfers to herself.” Wallace was the church’s bookkeeper. It states Wallace used the stolen funds for various expenses, including travel expenses and to pay rent on her home. Her fraudulent scheme nearly caused the church to shut down. The church was forced to reduce programming and take out several loans to pay expenses, pay late fees and interest on overdue bills.

In October 2025, Wallace hired criminal defense attorney and former judge Steven C. Bailey to represent her. A call and email to his office have not yet been returned.

18 U.S.C. § 1343 – Wire Fraud carries a penalty of a maximum of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both fine and imprisonment. There would also be supervised release of up to three years.

At this time, there is no known court date set.