Former Retirement Home Owner Indicted

The former owner of an upscale retirement home in Taos has been charged with several felony counts for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the elderly in financial schemes, including the alleged selling of $100,000 of worthless stock to a 91-year-old woman, the state Taxation and Revenue Department said in a news release.

A grand jury in Taos last week indicted J. William Himes, 42, of Albuquerque, on 12 felony counts, including securities fraud, selling unregistered securities, selling unregistered securities, selling and soliciting to sell unregistered securities without being a licensed broker and racketeering, the release said.

The indictment charges that in March 2007, Himes, then owner of Plaza de Retiro Inc., sold $200,000 in unregistered stock to an elderly couple with the promise of getting the couple into the Taos retirement home, according to the release.

According to investigators, the stock was worth nothing, and Himes failed to disclose the financial troubles Plaza de Retiro was having at the time, the department said.

Himes also allegedly approached another elderly couple between September 2006 and September 2008 with the same promise, and the couple deeded their home, worth more than $450,000, to the retirement home in exchange for housing, but Himes allegedly failed to keep his promise to care for the couple, the release said.

Himes also allegedly bought the couple’s home from Plaza de Retiro Inc., the indictment said.