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SOUTH SALT LAKE — The executive director of an assisted living care facility has been arrested and accused of illegally using the finances of one of her tenants to make tens of thousands of dollars worth of purchases.
Ann Mareta Polataivao, 31, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Tuesday for investigation of unlawful use of a credit card, communications fraud, identify fraud and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
Polataivao is the executive director of the Rosewood Assisted Care, 464 E. 3700 South, according to police.
South Salt Lake police were called to investigate claims that the alleged victim, a 74-year-old deaf man living at the facility, had more than $26,000 in fraudulent transactions on his banking statements, a police booking affidavit states.
"After disputing the charges, his bank provided additional information on some of the charges which showed Ann Polataiva as the person who'd made the purchases," according to the affidavit.
After serving several search warrants, Polataivao was taken in for questioning on Tuesday.
She "eventually admitted that she knowingly used the victim's credit cards to purchase multiple airplane tickets on a half dozen occasions and to send $1,250 in money orders to Samoa," the affidavit alleges. "Among the items purchased by the (Polataivao) fraudulently, was airplane tickets to Samoa, as well as several money orders to Samoa."
