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Charges Filed in California Financial Elder Abuse Case

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Los Angeles, CAWith the rate of financial elder abuse reportedly on the rise, states such as California are attempting to prevent elderly financial abuse. To that end, charges have reportedly been laid against a man who allegedly committed elder exploitation by stealing from his aunt.

According to the Los Angeles Times (11/26/13), the alleged perpetrator was a former insurance agent, who forged his aunt’s signature to withdraw money from her $100,000 life insurance policy sold to her in 2005. In all, more than $110,000 was taken from the insurance policy, without the aunt’s knowledge.

A 2011 report issued by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, in collaboration with the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech, suggests that elder financial abuse is on the rise. The report, titled “Elder Financial Abuse: Crimes of Occasion, Desperation, and Predation Against America’s Elders,” found that across the US, victims of elder financial abuse lost an estimated $2.9 billion, up from $2.6 billion in 2008.

The report, which examined scholarly and professional literature combined with news-feed articles to determine the extent of financial elder abuse, found that reported fraud perpetrated by strangers made up 51 percent of news-feed stories, with stories about financial elder abuse perpetrated by family, friends and neighbors at 34 percent. Stories about exploitation in the business sector made up 12 percent of news-feed stories.

In all, reported Medicare and Medicaid fraud cost victims an average of more than $38 million ($306 million in total), while business and industry fraud cost victims an average of more than $6 million ($205 million in total). Fraud committed by family members resulted in an average of $145,000 in losses ($7 million in total).

The report found that women were almost two times more likely than men to be victims of financial elder abuse, with most victims between the ages of 80 and 89. More than half of the perpetrators were male. The authors noted three different types of elder financial abuse crimes: crimes of occasion, in which the abuse occurs because the victim is in the way of the predator’s goals; crimes of desperation, in which family members are desperate for money and take it from their elderly relatives; or crimes of predation, which occur when trust is built between the perpetrator and the abused, so that trust can be used to financially exploit the senior.

According to the report, elder financial abuse is the “Crime of the 21st Century.”

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READER COMMENTS

Posted by

on
My in-law wore the victims here. One has Parkinson the other Alzheimer. The scumbags , the older brother his daughter and husband. The amount stolen 2 million dollars estate.
We are accused them of elder financial abuse. They used the money to enrich all three. Living ONLY $30,000 to the young brother.

Posted by

on
My friend was in an assisted living facility because he is not able to care for himself.He does not have a living trust,I don't have a POA but we have a joint bank account of which from that account I paid his bills.He got sick and have to go to an assisted living facility.Few months after residing in this facility,I found out that he closed the account, did not tell me why.I had given my tel.numbers to the owner of this facility because he does not have any living relative but his wife is my cousin but passed away 5 years ago,so I took care of him.I also told the owner that if he pass away he have to be buried with his wife so she needs to call me.A week ago I called to check on him and I was told that he passed away in Jan.4 but did not notify me.Now I found out that he was cremated because nobody claimed him.l need to access his account so I could pay for the interment,I called a probate lawyer and she needs to know if there is money in the new account and when I called the facility I was told that he has a living trust and the trustee is the sister of facility's owner, I reported this to the senior care regional office, it is financial abuse and it will be investigated.Could a living trust be legal if the client was incapable of making decisions? Would I still be able to bury him at least with his wife.

Posted by

on
is there a law that allows restitution for 3x's the amount of that which was stolen from an elderly person, when they file a lawsuit against the alleged criminal?

what is that law?

my mom stole 100,00.00 dollars from my grandma.

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