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Stealing Retirement Money From the Elderly Scammed (1) · Crime and Horror

0:24
Speaker 1: Thank you.
0:50
Speaker 2: In this episode, we're going to look at fraud that
0:53
Speaker 2: targets the elderly. A fiduciary is a person that's entrusted
0:57
Speaker 2: with handling someone's financial affairs. In one case, we'll show
1:01
Speaker 2: you how a trusted fiduciary, recommended by lawyers and other
1:04
Speaker 2: authority figures, spent her client's life savings on her own
1:09
Speaker 2: gambling app. Our second story shows how one elderly man
1:13
Speaker 2: fell in love with a young woman who had her
1:15
Speaker 2: sights set squarely on his bank account. But first, we're
1:19
Speaker 2: going to tell the story about how one woman found
1:22
Speaker 2: out far too late that the fraudster in this case
1:25
Speaker 2: was actually her own daughter.
1:30
Speaker 1: In June of 2007... I became aware that my mother
1:36
Speaker 1: was not being looked after properly. She had been financially abused.
1:39
Speaker 1: Somebody had taken all of her money and left her
1:42
Speaker 1: basically destitute.
1:43
Speaker 3: The majority of abuse against seniors is financial. About 80%,
1:50
Speaker 3: in fact. At the end of the day, somebody wants
1:53
Speaker 3: their money, unfortunately.
1:58
Speaker 1: I knew that she should have approximately 150-some-odd thousand dollars
2:03
Speaker 1: The money kind of just disappeared. It didn't show up
2:06
Speaker 1: on my mother's banking records, and it was like somebody
2:10
Speaker 1: had stuck a needle in the back of your head.
2:12
Speaker 1: That was my first reaction, like, what.
2:15
Speaker 4: Do you mean?
2:16
Speaker 5: You just have to sign here and here, and then.
2:18
Speaker 6: You don't even have to worry about a thing.
2:20
Speaker 1: My mother apparently made my sister power attorney without any
2:24
Speaker 1: knowledge of my father or myself. As power attorney, my
2:28
Speaker 1: sister virtually, from a financial standpoint, became my mother.
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Speaker 3: A power of attorney is a legal document where you
2:35
Speaker 3: give someone the right to access your finances for your benefit.
2:41
Speaker 3: Most seniors, when they make their power of attorney documents,
2:44
Speaker 3: they make their family, usually their son or daughter. And
2:49
Speaker 3: for the most part, that's fine. But there are sons
2:52
Speaker 3: and daughters out there who are stealing from their parents.
2:56
Speaker 1: At that time, my mother, she was about $ 18, 000 in
2:58
Speaker 1: debt to her caregivers. which was a municipality that she
3:05
Speaker 1: lived in.
3:09
Speaker 3: In this case, the senior had dementia. And as the
3:12
Speaker 3: power of attorney, this daughter proceeded to steal $ 163, 000 from
3:15
Speaker 3: her mother's bank account. It was my sister that.
3:17
Speaker 1: Had that it basically neglected my mother to start with.
3:25
Speaker 3: This daughter chose to go into the bank account and
3:28
Speaker 3: withdraw all this money, and she used a large portion
3:31
Speaker 3: of this money.
3:32
Speaker 5: At the casino.
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Speaker 1: So she took out of the bank machines at the casino,
3:38
Speaker 1: and we're kind of assuming that that's where most of
3:41
Speaker 1: the money went.
3:41
Speaker 3: I received information from the casino that between her winnings
3:46
Speaker 3: and losings, and her winnings and losings, she gambled in
3:49
Speaker 3: excess of one million dollars.
3:53
Speaker 1: Went to the police. My first encounter with the police
3:56
Speaker 1: was not really good. I was told maybe I should
3:59
Speaker 1: look after it civilly. And after a large conversation about
4:05
Speaker 1: why I shouldn't have to look after it civilly, we
4:07
Speaker 1: did a report. Shortly after that, I became involved with
4:11
Speaker 1: Sergeant John Keating.
4:13
Speaker 3: I was shocked by it, horrified by it, that somebody
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Speaker 3: could actually take almost every penny that their mother had
4:21
Speaker 3: and use it for their own purpose.
4:22
Speaker 1: John's very passionate about elder abuse, and eventually we got
4:28
Speaker 1: enough information that we arrested my sister, or as I
4:32
Speaker 1: call her now, my mother's daughter.
4:34
Speaker 2: The daughter was arrested and brought to police to be interrogated.
4:38
Speaker 2: But when she found out she was going to be charged,
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Speaker 2: she made an outlandish request.
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Speaker 1: My mother had a silver fox fur coat and hat
4:46
Speaker 1: that my dad had bought for her on one of
4:50
Speaker 1: his trips back home to Poland. And John arrested her,
4:54
Speaker 1: they went through all that process, and then she turned
4:56
Speaker 1: to John and she said, do you think it'd be
4:58
Speaker 1: okay if I kept my mother's silver fox hat and coat?
5:02
Speaker 1: We've never seen it to this day.
5:05
Speaker 3: So this matter went to court, and this particular daughter
5:08
Speaker 3: was convicted of stealing this money from her mother.
5:13
Speaker 1: From her standpoint, you know, a slap on the wrist
5:16
Speaker 1: was basically what they were thinking was going to happen.
5:19
Speaker 4: At this rate, it looks like she could get away
5:21
Speaker 4: with it.
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Speaker 1: The judge went out to deliberate how he was going
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Speaker 1: to sentence her. And my wife actually pointed out that
5:31
Speaker 1: she had lied when the judge asked how much money
5:35
Speaker 1: she made in a year.
5:39
Speaker 2: Why are senior citizens often targeted by fraudsters? Is it
5:43
Speaker 2: that seniors will have a nest egg of cash that
5:45
Speaker 2: fraudsters want to steal? Seniors are sometimes more trusting and
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Speaker 2: polite and find it difficult to say no or just
5:51
Speaker 2: hang up the phone. Seniors are less likely to report
5:54
Speaker 2: being the victim of a scam or all of the above.
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Speaker 2: The answer is all of the above. Fraudsters like to
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Speaker 2: target seniors because they know there's a lifetime of savings
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Speaker 2: they can get their hands on. Help protect the seniors
6:07
Speaker 2: that you know.
6:11
Speaker 1: The judge went out. John Keating came up and started
6:14
Speaker 1: to walk back. So I said to him, that's not right.
6:17
Speaker 1: She has more money than that. She gets more money
6:19
Speaker 1: than that. And he asked me if I could get
6:21
Speaker 1: a hold of my brother-in-law, who I still get along with.
6:24
Speaker 1: And I said, yes. We phoned him in Nova Scotia.
6:27
Speaker 1: He spoke to John. And when the judge came back in,
6:29
Speaker 1: the prosecutor at the time said, before you pass sentence here,
6:35
Speaker 1: there's something else you should know. You could see in
6:38
Speaker 1: his face that he was just furious.
6:40
Speaker 3: There's not a lot of elder abuse cases in court.
6:44
Speaker 3: At least there wasn't a year or so ago when
6:46
Speaker 3: this took place. But we found that the judge was excellent.
6:50
Speaker 3: He gave a great sentence. I believe she was sentenced
6:54
Speaker 3: to a couple years of house arrest in order to
6:58
Speaker 3: pay restitution and several years probation as well.
7:04
Speaker 1: Elder abuse, financial abuse of this type, is starting to
7:08
Speaker 1: gain momentum across the country and we have different police
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Speaker 1: services that are actually starting to do something about it.
7:15
Speaker 3: Seniors are from a generation where when things happened within
7:18
Speaker 3: their family, bad things, they kept it between the four walls.
7:22
Speaker 3: Mom is never going to tell anybody because she doesn't
7:25
Speaker 3: want to spread the bad things around that are going
7:28
Speaker 3: on in her family. She's embarrassed of the fact that
7:30
Speaker 3: one of her children might be harming her, stealing her money.
7:33
Speaker 3: So they keep it between the four walls quite often.
7:36
Speaker 1: In my mother's case, they beat her. You don't see
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Speaker 1: the blood and the wounds, but they are there.
7:42
Speaker 2: A fiduciary is a person entrusted with handling someone's financial affairs.
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Speaker 2: One case will show you how a trusted fiduciary, recommended
7:58
Speaker 2: by lawyers and other authority figures, spent her clients' life
8:01
Speaker 2: savings on her own gambling.
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Speaker 7: Teresa Lagner was a private fiduciary in the San Diego area.
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Speaker 4: Ms.
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Speaker 7: Lagner had built up a reputation over a variety of
8:11
Speaker 7: years as being someone who was trustworthy and could be
8:14
Speaker 7: appointed or hired as a fiduciary. When a trust became
8:19
Speaker 7: open where a fiduciary was necessary to be appointed, Mrs.
8:23
Speaker 7: Lagner's name came up quite often. A fiduciary is generally
8:26
Speaker 7: someone who is entrusted with handling the financial affairs of
8:30
Speaker 7: someone else. and the way you handle those have to
8:33
Speaker 7: be completely for the benefit of the beneficiary of the trust.
8:37
Speaker 7: The Secret Service investigates various types of financial crimes, different
8:42
Speaker 7: types of bank frauds, credit card frauds, anything basically to
8:45
Speaker 7: do with the financial institutions.
8:47
Speaker 4: The Lagner case came to my attention during a monthly
8:50
Speaker 4: meeting that we have as part of our task force.
8:54
Speaker 4: After we subpoenaed the bank accounts for Ms. Lagner, and
8:58
Speaker 4: had access to the bank accounts that belonged to the
9:01
Speaker 4: trusts and the estates, we were able to determine that
9:04
Speaker 4: large amounts of money, large chunks of the money, was
9:08
Speaker 4: being transferred.
9:09
Speaker 7: In this case, what she was able to do quite
9:11
Speaker 7: easily is make financial transfers of monies from the bank
9:16
Speaker 7: accounts of the beneficiaries to her own personal and business accounts.
9:21
Speaker 7: In fact, she was able to do this all on
9:22
Speaker 7: the Internet, online banking. The Secret Service received information of
9:27
Speaker 7: a suspicious activity report that one of the banks had
9:30
Speaker 7: reported that caused them to believe something was strange going
9:35
Speaker 7: on in a particular trust account. She made all the
9:38
Speaker 7: transfers electronically, and then she was able to withdraw those
9:41
Speaker 7: either through ATMs or writing checks at the casinos, and
9:45
Speaker 7: they would cash them for her. Very often, the beneficiaries
9:49
Speaker 7: were elderly. They were mentally infirm. What she did was
9:54
Speaker 7: target large trusts where the beneficiary was not fully aware
9:59
Speaker 7: of all the financial transactions.
10:01
Speaker 5: We knew that Ms.
10:02
Speaker 4: Lagner had been transferring funds from victim accounts, so it
10:06
Speaker 4: was an ongoing criminal enterprise. And because of that, we
10:10
Speaker 4: knew that it was essential for us to work the
10:14
Speaker 4: case as quickly as possible. After we determined that money
10:19
Speaker 4: was being spent at local casinos, agents conducted a surveillance
10:23
Speaker 4: of Ms. Lagner, both at her business and at the casino.
10:29
Speaker 4: As far as winnings go, she seemed to be losing
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Speaker 4: a lot more money than she was winning.
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Speaker 7: There was quite a bit of money that went through
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Speaker 7: the casinos, almost as much as a million dollars.
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Speaker 4: The primary amount of money was going towards her gambling habit.
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Speaker 7: There was one trust in particular that was left for
10:46
Speaker 7: a elderly woman who was a cancer survivor. She was
10:50
Speaker 7: particularly devastated because Miss Lagner was actually the second fiduciary
10:55
Speaker 7: who came on her case. The first fiduciary was also
10:59
Speaker 7: stealing from this particular victim. She personally interviewed and hired
11:03
Speaker 7: Miss Lagner and then later learned that she had been
11:05
Speaker 7: lied to and Miss Lagner was stealing money from her.
11:08
Speaker 7: We found that there was over $ 100, 000 that was taken
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Speaker 7: from this particular victim and gambled away at the casinos.
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Speaker 4: Once we were able to place her at the casino
11:18
Speaker 4: on several occasions, we felt comfortable enough to then bring
11:21
Speaker 4: the case and present it to the United States Attorney's Office.
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Speaker 7: She was ultimately charged with wire fraud, meaning that she
11:29
Speaker 7: was causing losses to people using interstate transmissions, and in
11:33
Speaker 7: this case, both internet banking transactions and wire transfers.
11:41
Speaker 4: Once the search warrants were obtained, We served simultaneous warrants
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Speaker 4: on both her house and her business at the same time.
11:51
Speaker 4: During the execution of the search warrant at her residence,
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Speaker 4: immediately upon entering her house, we encountered a house in
11:57
Speaker 4: complete disarray. It seemed to everybody involved that we had
12:02
Speaker 4: an individual who was into hoarding things. There were boxes everywhere.
12:08
Speaker 4: There were animal feces on the floor, and there were...
12:13
Speaker 4: food products that seemed to have been purchased from the
12:16
Speaker 4: store weeks and months prior that sat stale on the counter.
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Speaker 4: After securing the location, we located Ms. Lagner and her
12:26
Speaker 4: husband inside of the home. Agents searched the home, and
12:30
Speaker 4: I conducted an interview with Ms. Lagner. During the search
12:34
Speaker 4: of the residence, we seized a number of boxes of
12:38
Speaker 4: paperwork that related to various trusts that she had been managing.
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Speaker 8: Ms.
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Speaker 4: Lagner's demeanor was shocked, in a way standoffish with the
12:50
Speaker 4: agents who were interviewing her at first. After several minutes
12:54
Speaker 4: into the interview, I got the feeling that Ms. Lagner
12:57
Speaker 4: knew that we had discovered what she had been up to,
13:02
Speaker 4: and she went into a mode of simply stating that
13:06
Speaker 4: she had made a mistake.
13:11
Speaker 2: This was the local school foundation.
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Speaker 7: She came in to see both the prosecutor and the
13:17
Speaker 7: agents to go over how many trusts she actually had
13:20
Speaker 7: a control over and how many transactions, illegal transactions, she
13:24
Speaker 7: had actually made. There were quite a few interviews explaining
13:27
Speaker 7: to her the extent of the damage that she caused.
13:31
Speaker 7: She knew that she was taking improperly from a lot
13:33
Speaker 7: of the trusts and gambling them away, but she had
13:35
Speaker 7: no idea the extent of the money that she had taken.
13:38
Speaker 4: After we received the material both from her residence and
13:41
Speaker 4: her work, at her work approximately 120 boxes were seized.
13:47
Speaker 4: We were able to determine after combing through the records
13:50
Speaker 4: we seized at her work that they simply did not
13:54
Speaker 4: match with the bank records that we had reviewed from
13:58
Speaker 4: both her bank and the bank records.
14:01
Speaker 2: Of the victims.
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Speaker 7: When Ms. Lagner met with agents, it was obvious that
14:05
Speaker 7: she was very emotional about what had happened. She had
14:07
Speaker 7: prided herself in being a trust fiduciary for many years
14:11
Speaker 7: and now realized that she had not only let herself
14:13
Speaker 7: down and all of the victims down, but many of
14:17
Speaker 7: the attorneys who had relied on her to be a trustee.
14:20
Speaker 7: She knew that this was the end of her career
14:22
Speaker 7: and was afraid that she would not be able to
14:23
Speaker 7: make amends to all the victims that she took money from.
14:26
Speaker 7: What we learned from this case was that it was
14:29
Speaker 7: quite easy for someone with complete control over trust funds
14:33
Speaker 7: to take and withdraw money immediately.
14:35
Speaker 6: Ms.
14:36
Speaker 7: Lagner was sentenced to 18 months custody in federal prison,
14:39
Speaker 7: and she was also ordered to pay full restitution back
14:42
Speaker 7: for the trust that she had taken from her. So ultimately,
14:45
Speaker 7: she was ordered to pay back $ 471, 000.
14:56
Speaker 2: What is a fiduciary? A person to whom property is
14:59
Speaker 2: entrusted for the benefit of someone else. A person who
15:02
Speaker 2: receives the money from a person's bank account. A company
15:05
Speaker 2: that makes loans to trusted persons or a company that
15:08
Speaker 2: manufactures fiddles. Well, here's the answer. A fiduciary is a
15:11
Speaker 2: person to whom property is entrusted for the benefit of
15:14
Speaker 2: someone else. They're often given the power to control the
15:17
Speaker 2: financial affairs of someone who cannot take care of their
15:19
Speaker 2: own finances.
15:23
Speaker 9: The women that get involved in these situations are professionals.
15:27
Speaker 9: They know what they're doing.
15:29
Speaker 2: One elderly man fell in love with a young woman
15:31
Speaker 2: who set her sights squarely on his bank account.
15:35
Speaker 6: The sweetheart scams are very successful because, for one thing,
15:37
Speaker 6: it's very hard to prosecute. Usually the older gentleman, the
15:41
Speaker 6: gentleman that these people target, they're either living by themselves,
15:44
Speaker 6: they're recent widows, they've never been married. They usually have
15:47
Speaker 6: a pretty lonely existence.
15:49
Speaker 9: They probably haven't had a female in their life for
15:52
Speaker 9: a while.
15:53
Speaker 5: And when some young, pretty thing flirts with them, the
15:57
Speaker 5: ego gets stroked.
16:02
Speaker 9: One situation that happened right here in Cook County was
16:05
Speaker 9: with an elderly man who was alone at a restaurant
16:10
Speaker 9: and had been approached by a woman.
16:11
Speaker 6: The young woman sat down. They started up a conversation.
16:14
Speaker 6: Before you know it, she invited him to dinner.
16:18
Speaker 5: He enjoyed her companionship. They did become friends.
16:23
Speaker 9: She did have many of the situations, the emergencies coming
16:26
Speaker 9: up in her life.
16:27
Speaker 6: He comes over to dinner. She starts saying that my
16:30
Speaker 6: daughter needs a heart transplant. We need cash now or
16:33
Speaker 6: the bills will be astronomical. I do not have insurance.
16:36
Speaker 6: I do not have any other means to pay that.
16:38
Speaker 6: He gave her a check for $ 60, 000. The women who
16:40
Speaker 6: participate in this.
16:41
Speaker 2: Sweetheart scam are Eastern European women.
16:53
Speaker 5: And they travel. They're not just located in one location.
16:59
Speaker 6: Now, again, this was a man all throughout his life.
17:04
Speaker 6: He was watching every penny he ever made. He did not,
17:06
Speaker 6: he was not go on to his exotic vacations. He
17:09
Speaker 6: did not really even go on vacations. Everything he did,
17:13
Speaker 6: he knew down to the penny. He was very cheap
17:15
Speaker 6: in what he did. And also this woman comes into
17:17
Speaker 6: his life again, telling him that, oh, I love you, I.
17:21
Speaker 5: Care for you.
17:21
Speaker 6: And the next thing you know, probably within a year,
17:24
Speaker 6: year and a half, he is out $ 400, 000.
17:27
Speaker 9: If she wasn't available to visit him at home and
17:30
Speaker 9: give him a hug, she would have a family member come.
17:35
Speaker 5: A niece, maybe a sister, who knows what the relations were.
17:40
Speaker 9: And never anything that you might imagine, More of just
17:44
Speaker 9: a hug, a friendly gesture, something that he didn't have
17:47
Speaker 9: anywhere else, but he was getting from them.
17:49
Speaker 6: She invited him to his house when they got to
17:54
Speaker 6: the house. She was there. A person that she introduced
17:56
Speaker 6: as her brother was there. Her brother's kids were there.
17:59
Speaker 6: These all turned out later on to be basically her
18:02
Speaker 6: husband and her children. They sat down. They would have dinner.
18:05
Speaker 6: Next thing you know, they would tell him what a
18:06
Speaker 6: great guy he was. They would show him around the house.
18:09
Speaker 6: They went down to the basement and said, oh, we
18:10
Speaker 6: have to get this basement finished. But we have no money.
18:14
Speaker 6: He willingly admitted saying, I will give you the money
18:16
Speaker 6: to finish the basement.
18:18
Speaker 1: Sure.
18:21
Speaker 8: Some of these women that we have been dealing with
18:23
Speaker 8: usually are involved with other scams as well that we have.
18:26
Speaker 8: They are usually from like a clannish group who operate
18:30
Speaker 8: in an extended family type setting.
18:32
Speaker 3: Where they usually.
18:35
Speaker 8: Other members are also involved with some other type of
18:38
Speaker 8: fraud and some other type of theft going on as well.
18:40
Speaker 5: What is this, Dad? Like, look at all the money
18:42
Speaker 5: you have spent on her.
18:44
Speaker 9: He was paying bills for them. He was draining his account.
18:47
Speaker 9: And when his son did see these accounts going down,
18:52
Speaker 9: was outraged, went to the police, made the report. And
18:56
Speaker 9: as the police got involved, the victim would scream at them.
19:01
Speaker 9: He wanted them out of his house.
19:03
Speaker 6: I would go in there when I was asking him
19:05
Speaker 6: how he was doing. I would bring up the subject
19:07
Speaker 6: of this young lady, and all of a sudden he
19:09
Speaker 6: would get very defensive. He would say, this is my girlfriend,
19:11
Speaker 6: this is someone that I care about, this is someone
19:13
Speaker 6: that I want in my life.
19:15
Speaker 9: As the police would leave his home, he would call
19:18
Speaker 9: and give reports to his sweetheart and let her know
19:22
Speaker 9: that the police were asking and that he wanted to
19:24
Speaker 9: reassure her.
19:26
Speaker 5: Everything is fine. I love you. And she would, of course, say, well,
19:29
Speaker 5: I love you too.
19:30
Speaker 6: He truly believed that this woman cared for him. He
19:32
Speaker 6: truly believed that this woman had his best interest at heart.
19:35
Speaker 8: It's very embarrassing for the man to come forward and say,
19:38
Speaker 8: I was duped. I was taken advantage of. But then
19:41
Speaker 8: once you've opened his eyes about what has occurred here,
19:45
Speaker 8: it becomes abundantly clear you don't have enough for a
19:48
Speaker 8: criminal act because he voluntarily gave.
19:51
Speaker 2: All this money. What is one of the best ways
19:59
Speaker 2: to help protect the seniors in your life from fraudsters?
20:02
Speaker 2: Read all of their mail without their knowledge. Make sure
20:05
Speaker 2: you check out any new friends they make. Be involved
20:08
Speaker 2: in their life. Call regularly and include them in activities.
20:11
Speaker 2: Or study their monthly phone bill for any unusual cause. Well,
20:16
Speaker 2: the correct answer is the best way to determine if
20:18
Speaker 2: a senior in your life may be involved in a
20:20
Speaker 2: fraudulent scheme is to meet with them regularly, call them,
20:24
Speaker 2: and include them in activities. This interaction may help identify
20:28
Speaker 2: if a fraudster has entered their life.
20:33
Speaker 6: At one time, he had to go into the hospital.
20:35
Speaker 6: When he was released from the hospital, they did not
20:37
Speaker 6: see he was fit to go home, so he went
20:38
Speaker 6: into this nursing home. The only time she did come around,
20:41
Speaker 6: and this happened probably two to three days before his death, She's.
20:45
Speaker 9: In a room with him videoing, making sure to have
20:50
Speaker 9: on tape how much they loved each other, that he
20:53
Speaker 9: never had a problem with their relationship, with the money
20:56
Speaker 9: that he provided.
20:58
Speaker 6: She was videotaping this man, and what she was asking
21:00
Speaker 6: him is, do you want me to be prosecuted? Do
21:02
Speaker 6: you want me to go to jail? Do you want
21:04
Speaker 6: the police to leave me alone?
21:05
Speaker 5: You gave me the money.
21:06
Speaker 3: Freely, right?
21:07
Speaker 8: Of course.
21:08
Speaker 9: So just in case something came down the road, some charges,
21:12
Speaker 9: she had that on tape?
21:13
Speaker 5: He loved her. He wanted to give her this money.
21:16
Speaker 6: When the victim is depleted, then they will go on
21:19
Speaker 6: to someone else. He could not afford anything. He was
21:21
Speaker 6: basically being on a taxpayer's role.
21:24
Speaker 8: These type of crimes occur all so often, and it's
21:29
Speaker 8: unfortunate that I've seen no end in sight.