Chula Vista Woman on Supervised Release for Fraud Admits New Forgery and Fraud Crime

SAN DIEGO - While on supervised release for two prior federal fraud convictions, Ashleigh Lynn Chavez pleaded guilty today in federal court to yet another fraud, admitting she used forged letters purportedly from her former attorney and former employer to obtain employment with a San Diego-area company.

According to court documents, Chavez, 42, submitted six letters by email as part of a job application in November 2024, after she had been terminated from a human resources position at a local nonprofit organization when her criminal convictions were discovered during a background check.

Among the documents Chavez submitted was a forged letter falsely attributed to the attorney who had represented her in a prior federal criminal case. The fabricated letter, supposedly sent by the attorney to Chavez, falsely claimed that Chavez had been exonerated and the prosecution had agreed to dismiss all charges against her. The letter advised Chavez not to share any court records on her cases because they were supposedly sealed.

Chavez also submitted a forged recommendation letter purportedly signed by the chief executive officer of the nonprofit organization that had fired her weeks earlier. The letter praised Chavez's volunteer work for the nonprofit and recommended her for employment.

When contacted by law enforcement, both Chavez's former attorney and former employer confirmed that they had not written the letters and that the signatures on the documents were forged.

As part of her plea agreement, Chavez admitted that the fraudulent letters caused the company to hire her and that she remained employed there from December 2024 through March 2025.

In March 2021, Chavez was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for conspiring to embezzle more than $160,000 from a former employer. In July 2022, Chavez received an additional 24-month sentence after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for forging medical letters that falsely claimed she had been diagnosed with cancer and causing those forged letters to be submitted to a federal judge. Chavez was released from federal custody onto supervised release in both cases in November 2023.

Chavez is scheduled to be sentenced on October 8, 2026, at 9 a.m. by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia.

DEFENDANT Case No. 26-cr-02598-AJB

Ashleigh Lynn Chavez Age 42 Chula Vista, CA

aka "Ashleigh Lynn Coulson"

aka "Ashleigh Chavez Coulson"

SUMMARY OF CHARGES

Obstruction of Justice - Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1343

Maximum penalty: Twenty years in custody and a $250,000 fine.

INVESTIGATING AGENCY

Federal Bureau of Investigation