Company facing $2 million in wage theft judgments named in new lawsuit

The businesswoman who owns a network of care homes for the elderly and has been ordered to pay $2 million in wage theft judgments to former employees is now a defendant in a lawsuit alleging elder abuse at one of those homes.

Leslie Wang and her company, Wealthplus Management Group LLC, are among several defendants in a lawsuit brought by a woman who was a resident at Rose Garden in Vista from May 2024 through August 2025.

The now-93-year-old woman alleged that she suffered neglect and poor care at the home, to the point where she ended up with a bedsore so severe it exposed her bone and required emergency hospitalization.

The lawsuit contends that the home failed to assist the woman with her daily care needs and did not coordinate care with a hospice service that the family hired to provide care for her. That hospice provider is also a defendant in the suit.

Wang was a co-licensee of that care home and sole licensee of another, Rose Garden Capo  in Escondido, state records show. Both are now closed. 

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These San Diego caregivers are owed $2 million in stolen wages. They’ve been waiting years.

Joel R. Bryant, the lawyer for the elderly woman, did not respond to requests for comment on the suit. A lawyer for Wang also did not respond.

In April, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office charged the administrators of the Rose Garden homes with wage theft and human trafficking, alleging workers at the homes worked nearly around the clock, were paid a daily flat rate and no overtime. 

The administrators, Rolando Corpuz and Melissa Elsabel Sio Corpuz, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Wang was not charged. At the time Tanya Sierra, the communications director for DA Summer Stephan, told inewsource that the office was “assessing whether criminal charges can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt as to the other facilities and any additional parties involved.”

Sierra said last week that the case remains under investigation. 

Wang was the subject of an inewsource investigation into wage theft published in August. The investigation showed that the state Labor Commissioner’s office had ordered Wang to pay a total of $2 million to seven workers who brought wage theft complaints against her in the past several years — the highest amount of wage theft judgments levied against an employer in the county.

Those workers were employed at one of the seven residential care homes that Wang was licensed to operate by the state in Poway, Escondido and Vista. 

The workers in their wage theft complaints and in interviews with inewsource said they worked nearly around the clock in the homes, where they also lived and slept.

They got no meal breaks or rest periods, as required by state law, and were essentially on call to care for the half dozen residents in each facility. 

The lawsuit filed Sept. 3 contends that the Rose Garden facility in Vista was understaffed with workers who were not properly trained and were “exploited” in order to maximize profits. It alleges these practices contributed to the injury and poor care that the elderly woman suffered.

Wage theft — not paying workers money they are legally owed — is a massive problem, and the efforts by the state to hold employers accountable are weak. A 2024 report by the State Auditor highlighted several problems: the Office of the Labor Commissioner is swamped with a backlog of 50,000 claims, it takes two years or longer to process a claim, and only 12% of workers end up collecting any money.

San Diego County has set up a special office to address wage theft. This week, the Board of Supervisors passed a package of measures that will expand investigation, enforcement and identify new fees and penalties that will maximize the ability of workers to collect unpaid wages and penalties.