San Clemente luxury senior home embezzled more than $360, 000 from residents, state alleges

Two residents of Raya's Paradise were isolated from family and friends
while a top executive allegedly drained their assets, 

For Ron Hugli and Marie Siegel, life at Raya’s Paradise senior facility
in San Clemente came at a steep price. 

A state investigation has concluded the two elderly residents allegedly
were isolated by staff from friends and family members, and fleeced of
more than $360,000 combined by a top executive there. 

“(It’s) devasting,” said Hugli, 78, who the state said lost $266,308,
although he believes it’s actually hundreds of thousands more. “This is
what I was retiring on. … I’m up in the air. I’m hoping somewhere down
the line I get some kind of consolation.” 

An undocumented immigrant from Canada, Hugli said he feared the Trump
administration would seize his assets and deport him after 40 years in
the United States. 

So he gave power of attorney to Monica Westphaln, the chief operating
officer of Raya’s Paradise, a chain of seven luxury senior facilities in
San Clemente and Los Angeles County, founded in 1991 by registered nurse
Raya Gamburd. The San Clemente site on Avenida Calafia is the flagship,
with an ocean view and a capacity of 80 residents. 

The company’s mission is listed on its website: “To raise the standard
of comfort, happiness and care for seniors and their families.” 

Hugli became a believer and added Westphaln as a trustee to one of his
bank accounts. 

Financially abused
However, an investigation by the state Community Care Licensing Division
concluded Westphaln used her access to “financially abuse” Hugli. State
regulators also determined that Westphaln, through various means, took
$98,693 from 81-year-old Marie Siegel, using the money on lavish
personal purchases and plane trips. 

A June lawsuit filed by Siegel alleges she lost much more — a total of
$1.1 million — from her accounts, including $487,124 in charges by the
facility’s sister company for home care that was never provided. 

The state probe does not refer to the victims by name, but rather as
“R1” and “R2.” The Orange County Register identified them through
interviews and other documentation. 

A separate investigation has been conducted by the Orange County
Sheriff’s Department and turned over to the Elder Fraud Unit at the
Orange County District Attorney’s Office. 

Probe ‘contrived, fabricated’
In a brief interview, Westphaln responded that the allegations were
untrue. 

“The state came in and didn’t do their full investigation. All of it has
been disproved,” she said, directing further questions to her criminal
attorney, Ricardo Nicol of Santa Ana. 

Nicol described the state investigation as “contrived, fabricated and …
wrong.” 

“They reached a conclusion that I don’t think is supported by the facts,
and their techniques are unprofessional,” he said. 

In a written statement, company CEO and the founder’s son, Moti Gamburd,
said the facts in the state investigation had been “mangled.” 

“Unfortunately, in this industry, situations arise in which a resident
has no available or responsible family or other support system, and
these present genuinely difficult circumstances — and we had two recent
and unique situations such as this at our San Clemente facility,”
Gamburd said, adding that staff acted out of a sincere intent to help. 

“We recognize that, in circumstances like these, even well-intentioned
support can raise questions about appropriate boundaries with a
resident,” he said. “That said, these particular circumstances involve
complicated facts, and we do not believe the accusations accurately
reflect their full nature.” 

As far as the lawsuit by Siegel, Gamburd said no employee had access to
her accounts or personal funds, and he believes the complaint will not
be sustained. 

The state probe, completed in May, directed Raya’s Paradise to refund
the money to the victims and conduct staff training on residents’
rights. The citations are under appeal. 

‘Suspicious’ transactions
Hugli was admitted to Raya’s Paradise in June 14, 2023, after he
suffered a fainting spell, he said. Five days later, he signed the
agreement giving power of attorney to Westphaln, according to the
investigation. 

The state report noted multiple “suspicious” transactions on Hugli’s
accounts, including checks written to vendors without Hugli’s knowledge,
withdrawals made to pay off credit card charges for Westphaln’s personal
expenses and a payment to the County of Orange for Westphaln’s home. 

Additionally, there were more than $61,000 in checks for “home repairs”
that Hugli said were never done on his Dana Point house, the report
said. 

Also, according to the investigation, there were electronic payments to
multiple credit cards that Hugli did not own as well as a $24,299
payment to Hyundai Motor Finance. Hugli told investigators that he had
never purchased a car through Hyundai. 

The investigation also reviewed Marie Siegel’s finances from January
2024 to April 2025 and found dozens of credit purchases in retail shops,
stores and restaurants in and around the town where Westphaln resides.
The purchases were made without Siegel’s permission. 

Among the allegedly fraudulent credit charges were purchases at high-end
stores in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $8,000, grocery store
purchases, and payments made to a physician Siegel did not know, the
investigation report said. 

Bank statements showed that Westphaln allegedly charged the personal
purchases on multiple Chase credit cards belonging to Siegel and then
transferred money from Siegel’s bank account to pay for them, according
to the probe. Siegel’s bank account also noted that funds were used to
purchase Crypto coin without her knowledge. 

According to the state report, as well as Marie Siegel’s lawsuit,
roundtrip flight tickets for Westphaln as well as four associates of
Raya’s Paradise were purchased for December 2024 using 896,000 miles
redeemed on Siegel’s credit card. The trip was to celebrate New Year’s
Eve in New York, the lawsuit said. 

The suit also alleged that in May 2024, Westphaln and three others used
Siegel’s credit card without her consent to purchase airline tickets for
themselves to Tijuana and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 

According to the lawsuit, Westphal and associates at Raya’s Paradise had
Siegel sign a health power of attorney with fiduciary Jeffrey Siegel —
no relation to Marie Siegel — which they used to “facilitate their
wrongful conduct.” The suit said Marie Siegel has no memory of signing
the power of attorney, did not know Jeffrey Siegel and would not have
chosen him when she had family members who could do the job. The suit
identified Jeffrey Siegel as a longtime associate of Raya’s Paradise. 

Named in the suit are Westphaln, Gamburd, Raissa Gamburd and Jeffrey
Siegel. Marie Siegel alleged the defendants identified themselves to her
as state social workers. Westphaln, allegedly masquerading as a social
worker, falsely told Marie in January 2024 that she qualified for free
housing at Raya’s Paradise, the suit said. 

Disputed dementia diagnosis
Besides the alleged financial abuse, the state investigation cited
Raya’s Paradise for blocking Hugli and Siegel from leaving the facility
with friends or family members. The report also said Raya’s Paradise did
not allow Hugli to examine his own financial records. 

On Jan. 28, 2025, Raya’s Paradise obtained a medical diagnosis that
Hugli had dementia. On the same day of the diagnosis, Hugli was secreted
by a friend to another senior facility where the state report said a
separate physician determined he did not have dementia. 

Tom Lillard, the friend who took Hugli to get a second opinion, said
Raya’s Paradise officials tried unsuccessfully to have him arrested for
kidnapping. 

Lillard said he helped Hugli escape Raya’s Paradise and is working with
him on a pending lawsuit “out of pure anger.” 

“I told Ron, ‘I think (Westphaln) is scamming you,’ ” Lillard said.

Added Hugli, who is now back at his house: “She’s … very subtle, gentle,
easy to get along with and leads you down the garden path.” 

Deception from the outset?
Marie Siegel’s lawsuit said the widow was excited by the idea of
socializing with others at Raya’s Paradise and participating in its
recreational activities. She agreed to what she thought was a free “test
period” at the senior home. 

“This was predatory behavior because defendants had no intention of
providing anything for free and instead sought to appropriate Ms.
Siegel’s assets, and lock her into a contractual relationship which was
unwanted and not needed by Ms. Siegel,” said her lawsuit, filed by
attorney Shannon Papazis. 

The suit said that Marie Siegel also was charged for a second unit at
Raya’s Paradise for her disabled daughter, who did not ever live there. 

Officials at Raya’s Paradise impersonated Siegel by gaining access to
her accounts, modifying her passwords and then using the accounts for
their own financial gain, the lawsuit said. 

Isolated from family
On a few occasions, Marie Siegel was able to leave the facility and
return to her San Clemente home. However, the suit alleges, Westphaln
would go to the residence and force Siegel to return. 

Siegel alleged officials at Raya’s Paradise tampered with her cellphone
to block her family members’ phone numbers, preventing them from calling
her and likely removing their phone numbers altogether. 

The lawsuit said Siegel’s brother, Dennis, called her routinely. After
she moved to Raya’s Paradise, Dennis found that all his calls would go
straight to voicemail and were never returned. 

“Defendants intended to isolate and gatekeep her from her family members
so that family members could not attempt to have her removed from the
Facility and/or learn of the fraudulent scheme being used to drain Ms.
Siegel’s assets,” the lawsuit states. 

In what the lawsuit said was an attempt to keep control of Marie
Siegel’s assets, Jeffrey Siegel secretly asked the court to put her
under a conservatorship. Jeffrey Siegel had obtained an opinion from Dr.
Jeffrey Gandin that Marie Siegel was unfit to make her own life
decisions. 

The lawsuit alleges Westphaln and other defendants prompted Gandin to
offer that opinion, since he had never examined Marie Siegel and was not
her physician. The petition was denied. 

Jeffrey Siegel did not return a voicemail left at his office.

Marie Siegel is now back at her house, a short distance from Raya’s
Paradise. 

https://www.ocregister.com/2026/07/17/san-clemente-luxury-senior-home-emb
ezzled-more-than-360000-from-residents-state-alleges/