When courts appoint guardians, for the elderly, who are no longer able to care for themselves, or their finances, we are finding that there is now a billion dollar business, in a new oversight report, detailing the abuse, and it also suggests that the government isn’t doing enough to stop the crimes. The GAO, looked at hundreds of cases of alleged abuse across dozens of states and found several instances where guardians with questionable backgrounds sailed through the screening process. In other cases, the courts never monitored the guardians they appointed.
According to the National Council on Aging, the financial loss to the elderly, is expected to be $2.6 billion. And what is really sad, the abuse is usually done by a family member, often a child or spouse. These representatives are in a position to drain their savings, compel a change in the will or simply neglect the individuals they are charged with caring for. The GAO looked at 20 cases, where it’s estimated the guardians made off with $5.4 million from 158 mostly-senior victims. They were overseen by courts in 15 states, as well as in the District of Columbia, but the oversight often fell short of detecting problems with the alleged abusers. Fox News
In one case, a convicted robber was allowed to be the guardian of an 87 year old man, who had alzheimers. He embezzled about $640,000 from him, allegedly using the money to pay for a Hummer, exotic dancers and other expenses and purchases. The victim was found in a dirty basement wearing a diaper. A social worker in Kansas also became a guardian filed no mandatory accounting documents with the court, according to the GAO. Nor was any documents filed with the Social Security administration. In total, he and his wife were found abusing 18 people, and 2 were senior citizens.
The guardian allegedly paid himself more than $102,000 from the inheritance of one of the victims. He claimed the funds covered “therapy.” In all of these cases, the courts didn’t screen the guardian applicants, nor did the courts oversee them after they were appointed.
It is still unclear just how widespread this problem is nationwide. But the GAO also found other problems, with the use of fake identities. One applicant had bad credit, another was using the Social Security number of a dead person. In all four states — Illinois, Nevada, New York and North Carolina — the GAO got the certification or met the requirements.
“Our undercover tests call into question the ability of these state certification programs to effectively prevent criminals and individuals with bad credit from gaining control over the lives and assets of vulnerable seniors,” the GAO said in its report. Fox News
