Press Release: 3/27/2025

AG's Office Secures Indictments Against Former Head Of Children's Daycare For Stealing Nearly $127,000

 

Defendant’s Boyfriend Also Indicted for Related Tax and Unemployment Fraud

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

3/26/2025

MEDIA CONTACT

Sydney Heiberger, Press Secretary

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Call Sydney Heiberger, Press Secretary at (617) 727-2543

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Email Sydney Heiberger, Press Secretary at Sydney.Heiberger@mass.gov

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO) today announced that a Suffolk County Grand Jury has returned six indictments against Maritza Juliao, 52, of Brockton, for stealing nearly $127,000 from the Crispus Attucks Children’s Center (CACC) in Dorchester and lying under oath to conceal her self-dealing. The grand jury indicted Juliao on charges of Larceny over $1,200 by Single Scheme (3 counts) and Perjury (3 counts). 

The Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General (OIG) began investigating Juliao in 2021 in response to a complaint from a former accountant at CACC. A joint investigation between the AGO and the OIG, with assistance from the Massachusetts State Police (MSP), revealed that Juliao employed multiple schemes to unjustly enrich herself and her family members at the expense of CACC and its clients. 

CACC, located in Dorchester, provides daycare services for more than 200 children aged 6 weeks to 6 years old. CACC receives over 99% of its funding from public sources, and most of its families receive some form of tuition assistance. As CACC’s Executive Director, Juliao had control over and access to CACC’s operating funds and payroll system, managed CACC’s staffing, and determined each staff member’s compensation. CACC’s Board of Directors had exclusive authority to determine Juliao’s compensation. 

The AGO alleges that from 2019 through 2022, Juliao abused her control over CACC’s finances to give herself raises, retroactive pay, vacation pay, bonuses, and gift cards totaling nearly $100,000, of which CACC’s Board of Directors neither knew about nor approved.  

Further, the AGO claims that from February 2020 through August 2021, Juliao paid $13,900 to a cleaning service called “CJM Cleaning Services” (CJM) for carpet cleaning services that were never provided. CJM billed CACC for monthly cleaning services from October 2015 through February 2022. CJM was solely owned and operated by Juliao’s longtime boyfriend, Wilfredo Ortiz, Sr., 53, of Brockton, a fact that Juliao has never disclosed to CACC’s Board of Directors. The AGO alleges that Ortiz, Sr. concealed CJM’s income on his personal income tax returns in 2018, thereby “reducing” his tax burden for that year by over $2,000. Ortiz, Sr. also allegedly concealed CJM’s income from the Department of Unemployment Assistance when he briefly sought unemployment benefits in March and April 2020.  The grand jury indicted Ortiz. Sr. on charges of Filing a False Tax Return (1 count) and Unemployment Fraud (1 count).   

The AGO’s investigation also revealed that from July 2016 through March 2021, Juliao stole approximately $12,500 from CACC’s operating account and paid them to another organization—known at various times as Next Level Baseball League and later incorporated as Next Level Boston Sports, Inc.—whose corporate governance included Juliao as Vice President and Juliao’s eldest son as President, Treasurer, and Director. 

Juliao allegedly concealed these and other payments from CACC’s Board of Directors by falsely attesting on CACC’s annual financial reports that neither she nor her family members received goods, services, wages, grants, contributions, or anything of value from CACC aside from her regular compensation. 

Juliao and Ortiz, Sr. will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on April 15. 

These charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. CACC fully cooperated and assisted with the AG’s investigation.   

This criminal matter is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Douglas Sheehan of the AGO’s White Collar and Public Integrity Division, with assistance from Massachusetts State Police assigned to the AGO, the Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Revenue’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, and the Department of Unemployment Assistance’s Program Integrity Division.