She's not a victim but a victimizer. Those were the words used by an assistant U.S. attorney to describe Teresa Adamos Pereda. She was sentenced in the District Court of Guam this morning in two separate cases involving embezzlement and fraud.

Tearfully addressing the court Teresa Adamos Pereda said that "in humility and brokenness I am sorry" she apologized to her friends and family, to her church family at Saint Paul's Church, and to the family of her former employer Dr. Robert Gatewood.

Pereda was sentenced this morning for being an accomplice in bilking millions of dollars from friends and family as part of an inheritance scam. She was also sentenced in another case for embezzling more than $1 million from her former boss between 2011 and 2019.

During the hearing, Dr. Gatewood said "I felt she stabbed me in the back and pierced me through my heart. I felt betrayed."

Public Defender Brianna Kottke asked the judge for leniency pointing out Pereda's cooperation, and the disparity in sentences in other jurisdictions as compared to her clients.


Pereda asked for mercy, "I have made some mistakes I can't change, but I have changed so that I don't make the same mistakes."

However Assistant US Attorney Maravic David asked the court to see the defendant not as a victim but as a victimizer and a serial fraudster.

In Dr. Gatewood's case, Pereda wrote a total of 284 fraudulent checks getting away with over $1.1 million. In the case involving the inheritance scam, she was involved with fleecing at least 36 island residents out of $2.5 million.

One of those victims was Ninette Senior. Senior is a caregiver for her elderly father and disabled brother. She said she believed she was an easy target for Pereda. She told the court that when Pereda approached her about the inheritance scam in 2019, "I was thinking gosh, I never asked for anything I wonder if this is God's way of rewarding me for the things I've done to help my family." But when she found out about the scam she said she felt so stupid and wondered what she did in her life to deserve this to happen.

Just before sentencing District Court Judge John Coughenour said "this case is stunningly distinct in the length of the embezzlement of Dr. Gatewood, the abuse of the trust and friendship that was involved and then to turn to family and friends not just a few times but dozens of times and using religion to persuade people to give up hard-earned money when it had to be obvious there's no question she knew this was a fraud because she became an active participant

Judge Coughenour sentenced Pereda to eight years for the case involving the inheritance scam and five years for the embezzlement case involving her former employer--both sentences are to run concurrently. She must also pay a total of three million in restitution for the victims in both cases.