San Diego caregivers still waiting for $2M in wage theft judgments

For five months, Paul Serrato worked 20-hour days, six days a week at a collection of small elderly care homes arrayed around a tidy cul-de-sac in Poway.

He lived at the homes, bathing residents and changing their diapers, cooking meals, administering medicine, washing laundry and cleaning rooms, according to allegations made in proceedings before the state Office of the Labor Commissioner. Serrato had no room of his own, slept on a living room couch and was at the beck and call of the residents nearly around the clock.

Eventually he filed a complaint for wage theft with the Labor Commissioner, and won a decision awarding him nearly $170,000 in unpaid wages, including penalties and interest against the owner of the homes, Wealthplus Management Group, LLC.

That award was issued in May 2025 — four years after he stopped working at the home and 2 1/2 years after he filed his complaint. “I’m wondering — when?” Serrato said. “I’m still hoping I’m gonna get it, of course. Maybe a little more time it’ll come.”

Serrato is one of at least seven caregivers who are owed six-figure sums after the state Labor Commissioner found they were victims of wage theft at homes licensed to Wealthplus and founder Xiaoqing “Leslie” Wang. Nearly all of them are Filipino.

In all, the records show that the Labor Commissioner has issued judgments totaling $2 million against Wealthplus — the highest amount of wage judgments in San Diego, according to a list maintained by the county’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement.

But workers like Serrato have received little money. Some of the labor judgments are more than two years old. The wage violations themselves date back to 2019-2022.

The plight of Serrato and his fellow workers is symptomatic of what many advocates and policy makers see as a broken wage theft enforcement system. Each year workers in industries across the state file tens of thousands of wage theft claims with the labor office, but it can take years for a case to be heard.

A 2023 state audit found that the labor office has a backlog of nearly 50,000 cases. The clogged system, coupled with employers who are adept at evading paying judgments, means workers often don’t recover what they are owed.

Employers use a variety of tactics — from bankruptcy to what one lawsuit filed against Wang and Wealthplus called “corporate shell games” — to avoid paying.

“That’s always the problem when it comes to these cases,” said San Diego lawyer Ian Seruelo, who represented several of the Wealthplus workers at the labor office. “You will be able to get the judgment. But getting the money is a different story.”

Wang was at one time the licensed owner and operator of at least a half-dozen Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly in the county, including the five in Poway that operated under the Solaris Senior Community name.

It was one of several company names that Wang has used to operate the senior homes.

County records show Wealthplus registered Solaris Senior Community as a fictitious business name in 2022. Wang signed the document as president of Wealthplus.

Another entity, Solaris Capital Group Inc., acts as a landlord for the properties, according to court records. And a third company called Garden 36, also created by Wang, was also affiliated with the property.

(A separate company, VC Team Corp., rented the homes from Wealthplus, and acted as the payroll company and administrator for the business. Though also named in judgments, VC Team went bankrupt and its debts were discharged — meaning the judgments are uncollectable against VC Team.)

“That’s always the problem when it comes to these cases. You will be able to get the judgment. But getting the money is a different story.”

Ian Seruelo, San Diego lawyer

Those are just a few of the numerous companies that public records show Wang has created over the years. A lawsuit filed last year by four former workers at the Poway homes — collectively owed about $1.5 million in labor office judgments — contends the array of companies is intended to shield her from liability for what a lawyer for the workers described in a court filing as “industrial scale wage theft.”

“Ms. Wang has a pattern and practice of perpetrating wage theft through RCFEs she operates,” the lawyer wrote, opposing Wang’s bid to dismiss the suit. “She then evades liability through corporate shell games.”

The lawsuit argues that Wang orchestrated a bogus sale of Wealthplus to a company that appears not to exist or, if it does, isn’t registered in California. The sale to Shanghai Jiyou Mesh Co., Ltd. allegedly occurred in December 2022 — just months after the workers filed their wage claims with the labor office, the suit says.

State licensing records for the facilities don’t show any transfer of ownership to Shanghai Jiyou. The company does not appear in a search of business registrations kept by the Secretary of State.

Moreover, state inspectors with the Community Care Licensing Division spoke to Wang in June 2025 about several complaints concerning one of the Solaris properties. A record of that meeting identified Wang as the licensee, and also said that a year earlier — when the administrators of the facility suddenly quit — Wang returned “to check on the residents and manage the facility.”

State records show that in August 2025 the licensee for the Poway homes changed from Wealthplus to a new company, Melrose Senior Care. The judgments were entered against Wealthplus because it was the licensee during the period when the wage violations occurred.

On July 13 county lawyers, working to collect wages on behalf of some of the workers, obtained a court order authorizing collection of $173,000 against Wealthplus on behalf of one of the workers.

Wang could not be located for comment. inewsource reporters went to several homes in Rancho Santa Fe, Carlsbad and Escondido that a review of the voluminous records of her activity showed might be potential residences. 

One of the homes was empty and recently sold. The Escondido address is a care home and a worker on site said Wang doesn’t live there. 

The Rancho Santa Fe home is in a gated community that limits access. County records show in 2024 Wang transferred the multi-million dollar property to an individual with a Rancho Santa Fe post box as an address. 

The post office box is the same mailing address that Wang listed for another of her limited liability companies in a property purchase last year, records show.

An attorney representing Wang said she denies the allegations in the civil lawsuit filed by the four workers. Citing the pending case, the lawyer said neither he nor Wang could comment.

For Serrato, the years-long wait for his wages has been frustrating. But the only time he teared up during an interview was when he recalled the bond he had with his older, dependent clients.

“One of the clients, sometimes they say, ‘Oh, don’t leave, don’t leave me. Stay with me’ because they feel the feeling of how you take care of them,” he said. “It’s different, totally different, when you’re on the job.” 

Investment opportunity

Wang, 57, appears to have been in the RCFE industry for more than a decade. Her LinkedIn page for Wealthplus described her as the managing director of “an investment fund representing qualified Chinese citizens interested in relocating to the USA.” 

“Currently developing a network of RCFEs in the San Diego area,” she wrote. “RCFEs are a great business opportunity for qualified investors that are looking to benefit from a recurring revenue flow, real estate appreciation and increase in monthly cash flow.”

Wealthplus is listed as a co-licensee to the Vista facility in state records, which said the home closed in April. In that report Wang told investigators that she had sold the business four years earlier, but she could not provide documentation of the sale or any proof that the state was notified of the change. 

Wang was identified as the licensee of Rose Garden Capo in Escondido in a state report also from April.

That same month, the district attorney’s office charged Rolando Corpuz and Melissa Elsabel Sio Corpuz, who operated the facilities, with human trafficking and wage theft against three workers in 2023 and 2024.

In that case, prosecutors said the workers lived at the facility, worked nearly around the clock and were paid a flat amount on a daily basis, not the hourly minimum wage or overtime pay. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Wang, the licensed operator of the home, was not charged.

On Friday, prosecutors filed new charges against the couple for wage theft and human trafficking in connection with six more workers who came forward after the original charges. 

The case is still under investigation, said Tanya Sierra, communications director for District Attorney Summer Stephan.

“We are assessing whether criminal charges can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt as to the other facilities and any additional parties involved,” she wrote in an email. “The existence of outstanding wages before an administrative agency does not automatically establish a criminal offense; the evidentiary standards and required intent differ.” 

Long before the wage judgments were levied, Wang had more ambitious plans. Three years ago she sought to turn another one of Wealthplus’s Escondido facilities into a much larger 45-bed assisted living facility. 

The Escondido City Council didn’t approve the plan, but the property remains a residential care home called Mariposa Manor. State records show Wealthplus is the licensed operator of that facility.

In addition to the lawsuit filed last year by four workers at the Solaris facilities, the county Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement is working on cases for Serrato and two other workers who are collectively owed $570,000 by Wealthplus. 

Under a program launched in 2021, workers can turn over, or assign, their judgments to the county. In return they get up to $3,000 while county lawyers go to court and launch what are essentially collection proceedings to try to recover the full amount. 

If the worker recovers some wages, the $3,000 is paid back and the county also receives the interest that accrued after the county took up the case, said Branden Butler, the Labor Standards and Enforcement office director.

So far, the county has been able to get some wages paid for workers, and also taken in $60,000 for the fund.

But that process too can be slow, Butler said, because often “we’re up against that, professional folks who are trying to evade judgment.”

In one of the county’s cases last August, a Superior Court judge in North County issued a warrant for Wang because she did not show up for a debtor’s exam — a proceeding where someone who owes money is questioned in detail about their finances.

She eventually appeared in December, court records show.

‘I take care of everyone’

Serrato was born in Visayas, Philippines and immigrated to the United States when he was 19 years old. He worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska for 25 years. 

In 2018, he moved to California and worked in the restaurant and housekeeping industry. He was working as a housekeeper at a Carlsbad resort in 2020 when he heard about the Solaris job through one of his co-workers. 

Serrato lacked transportation. Solaris allowed him to work where he lived, an arrangement Serrato thought could help him save money. 

A first-time caregiver, Serrato learned everything about caretaking while living in the facilities. The now 57-year-old said he felt a strong sense of duty to comfort and provide care for older patients.

But the job — which was supposed to pay $13 an hour — became draining, mentally and physically.

“They like to make money, the owner, but they like to pay small wages,” Serrato said. “A lot of Filipino workers, they like to work in nursing homes, but they usually take advantage.”

Serrato said at nighttime he was the only caregiver present to manage as many as six patients in the home. He accepted the job with the understanding that he’d only be working during the day. 

Instead, he worked around the clock. He said he changed diapers every four hours, and got at most three hours of sleep each night. 

“You’re in there every day, you got too much in your head,” Serrato said. “Because you always watch the (patients). Maybe one of them is going to walk away, walk out of bed, get out of the facility. That’s another thing as your job as a caregiver because if the client walks away, it’s going to be your fault.” 

He said while living at the facility he missed his parents, who lived in Oceanside, and wanted to visit them. On his limited days off, he was told to be back by the afternoon to watch the patients — making it difficult to make the visit altogether. 

“I had a day off, but they didn’t let me go home,” Serrato said. “They wanted me to stay there.” 

Serrato wasn’t alone in his experience, records of the labor office proceedings show.

John Polistico worked as a live-in caregiver at the Solaris homes from November 2021 through September 2022. He was paid a flat amount of $110 per day. He worked from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to a schedule outlined in the labor office judgment.

He had no bed, instead sleeping on a recliner or a sofa, near a buzzer that would alert him if any of the six clients needed help during the night. He testified he got about five hours of sleep per night.

He was awarded $224,000 in wages, but has yet to collect.

Several workers were assisted in pursuing their claims after contacting the Pilipino Worker Center, a grassroots nonprofit agency that advocates for Filipino immigrants and domestic workers.

Clytie Causing, the center’s director of community action, said Wang is a “serious violator” in an industry that exploits caregivers regularly.

“As an industry in itself, there’s a lot of wage violations, labor violations happening,” said Causing, who worked as an advocate for several of the workers. “It’s because of the way that the business is structured. The workers — most of them are live-in, they stay where they work. That’s where they sleep and they become isolated.”

Seruelo, the lawyer, said that many caregivers who work in residential care homes are undocumented — and that makes them vulnerable to pressure from employers, who can threaten their job or residence status.

“They prey on those vulnerabilities and threaten the workers like saying, ‘You’re lucky to have a job, you can be deported,’” Causing said, referring to the caregiving industry in general.

While the state licenses the facilities, it does not consider wage judgments levied against a licensee unless it impacts the operations of the home, a spokesperson said. 

State records show routine inspections of Wealthplus facilities turned up no major violations over the years. 

San Diego County has taken a more proactive approach than the state when it comes to wage theft. It also has a program for workers in the restaurant industry.

A restaurant with an outstanding wage judgment that does not comply with county efforts to recover the money can face suspension of its permit, Butler said. So far the program has returned $110,000 to workers. It has not yet suspended any restaurant permits.

In May, Supervisor Paloma Aguirre proposed expanding Butler’s office by adding two more staff to investigate wage theft claims. The proposal has yet to be approved.