SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Former South Lake Tahoe mayor Tamara Wallace could face up to 20 years in federal prison for embezzling close to $390,000 from a local church while keeping its books.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Wallace on Tuesday with one count of wire fraud, which could result in 20 years prison time, a $250,000 fine or both, plus up to three years of supervised release.
The U.S. attorney’s filing likely means Wallace has waived her right to a grand jury and “may at some point plead guilty,” according to Lauren Horwood, public information officer for the Eastern District of California’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
It may take a few weeks before Wallace enters a plea, Horwood added.
From April 2019 until September 2025, Wallace wrote herself checks while she was Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church’s bookkeeper which totaled $360,000 and completed unauthorized electronic transfers which totaled $31,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s filing.
In the church’s records, she disguised the checks as reimbursements for charges that she had never paid out of her personal accounts, the filing says. The U.S. attorney used the example of on Sept. 5, 2025 Wallace wrote herself a check for $7,500 with the only note on the memo being “Reimb.”
The church gave Wallace leeway with the expenses, the filing says, but she was never authorized to use funds for personal expenses. Wallace was a signatory on the church’s accounts, and she was the only person with access to the church’s digital financial records for most of her time as its bookkeeper.
Wallace used the funds for travel and to pay rent on her home, the filing says.
The church nearly had to close down because of the financial losses resulting from Wallace’s fraud, according to the filing. It says the church incurred late fees and interest on overdue bills and was forced to take out several loans to stay afloat.
On Oct. 5, 2025 Wallace published a letter in the Tahoe Daily Tribune confessing to embezzling from the Presbyterian church. She resigned from her position as mayor a week later.
The case is now known as United States v. Wallace.
