At the request of the defense, a judge Thursday postponed a bail review hearing for a Nuevo man accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from seniors whom he persuaded to give him money to invest in a bogus profit-making venture.
Toby David Smith, 59, was arrested on July 3 following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into a nearly two-year fraud scheme allegedly perpetrated by the defendant.
Smith is charged with four counts of financial elder abuse, two counts each of money laundering and grand theft and a sentence-enhancing allegation of targeting multiple individuals in an embezzlement scheme.
Smith’s attorney filed a motion for bail review, but during a hearing Thursday before Superior Court Judge Gary Polk, she requested additional time to prepare documents in support of the motion. The prosecution is contending that the defendant’s only funds are those he allegedly stole, and he shouldn’t be permitted to utilize them for the purpose of posting bond.
The judge reset the matter to Aug. 21 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
The defendant is being held on $930,000 bail — the total sum he’s accused of embezzling — at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to a bail-setting affidavit filed earlier this month by sheriff’s Investigator Lance Colmer, Smith came under investigation in April following complaints by the adult daughter of a 71-year-old Nuevo resident, Cynthia Cadena, who had written a series of checks to the defendant beginning in May 2022.
Colmer alleged Smith convinced Cadena, with whom he attended church, that he could generate windfall profits from an investment vehicle operated by his company, Reserve Strategies, which was determined to be fake.
The defendant made the same claims to other fellow churchgoers, Frank and Stacy Maqueros of Nuevo, and they agreed to commit funds to Reserve Strategies, the affidavit stated.
According to the narrative, Cadena wrote a total of five checks amounting to $742,936, while the other victims committed close to $200,000.
“Toby Smith systematically transferred, depleted, spent and laundered nearly all of the money via personal spending at restaurants, travel, bills and retail purchases,” Colmer wrote. “He was laundering the money by transferring funds to 10-plus banks and financial platforms. He transferred at least $60,000 of … (the victims’) money to two crypto-currency companies, Coinbase and Binance.”
At the outset of the investigation, the detective said he served warrants to freeze assets in the accounts, but virtually all of the funds were gone.
The affidavit said after Smith was taken into custody, he waived his right to remain silent and agreed to be questioned, allegedly admitting “his fiduciary relationship with the victims … and that he embezzled and spent the victims’ money on personal expenses.”
“Smith admitted he has little to no outside income and no reliable or consistent income,” according to court documents.
The defendant has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.