In June 2013, the company’s lawyer and staff confronted the founder and president, Stephen Grisham, with evidence that he had stolen from a veteran under his supervision. Grisham stepped down and gave up his caseload, becoming the latest in a shameful line of court-appointed guardians and conservators caught abusing their largely unregulated powers.
The year since then has been a swirl of investigations, audits and court hearings. More signs of wrongdoing by Grisham emerged. A necklace that belonged to the estate of a deceased Minneapolis woman was sold for $1,500. Another woman lost nearly $16,000 in Krugerrands, the famous gold coins from South Africa.
Federal charge
After an investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Grisham was charged last month with a federal count of misappropriation by a fiduciary. He faces up to five years in prison. It’s a stunning fall for a man whom judges enlisted for years to manage the affairs of victims or potential victims of financial exploitation.
After other guardians and conservators went bad in recent years, the state court system has improved its oversight of these professionals. Yet it was Grisham’s own employees who discovered their boss’s misdeeds.
Robert McLeod, a lawyer for Alternate Decision Makers, said the company is “effectively dead.” Yet he wants a bonding company to pay at least $90,000 in legal and accounting fees that were expended to detect an estimated $100,000 in missing assets.
Grisham’s confession last year set off a scramble by the company to change locks, safe combinations and passwords, to find other conservators and guardians who could take over Grisham’s cases and to hunt for clues to additional thefts by Grisham.
“We acted as if he stole from every file,” McLeod said. If the company had not investigated, “the concern was that he would have continued stealing.”
Full Article and Source:
Lawyers Still Unraveling the Case of the Thieving Conservator
See Also:
Former Minnesota Conservator Stephen Grisham Faces Federal Theft Charges
Lawyers Still Unraveling the Case of the Thieving Conservator
See Also:
Former Minnesota Conservator Stephen Grisham Faces Federal Theft Charges
8 comments:
Sad, isn't it, that Mr. McLeod is the most rare of attorneys: the lawyer who will actually REPORT theft and mistreatment of incapacitated people.
Others just circle the wagon and follow the code of omerta.
Oh, and make up shit about anybody who criticizes them.
Aside from all the money and property stolen by these court-blessed thieves is the emotional damage caused by loss of family heirlooms, totally disrespected by the perps.
Aside from all the money and property stolen by these court-blessed thieves is the emotional damage caused by loss of family heirlooms, totally disrespected by the perps.
I bet it will turn out he stole much more than they think at first look.
Who is watching the guardians and conservators?
Did anyone complain? If so where did those complaints end up?
How did we get to this insanity? Why is this system set up giving the fiduciaries opportunities to give into their temptations to take more and more and more knowing the chances of getting caught are in the thieves favor, it's worth the risk and this case is one example of many going undiscovered with protections we the people do not enjoy: immunity is a big problem along with no where to complain in addition to not having access to the accounting - is anyone following the $ sign?
In order to better understand
1)why and how the existing laws are disregarded and
2)who is involved in the drafting and approving the language in the state statutes related to guardianship with legs into
3)decedents probate estate
Some of the who: elder law attorneys, a mixed bag of lawyers along with lobbyists and special interest groups are front and center influencing and controlling many state legislators rejecting or approving language in the laws designed with loopholes and omissions in the best interest of those who are profiting along with job security.
One needs to look at the well organized protection industry with the same pattern nationwide better known as:
PROBATE CARTEL (to be continued)
PROBATE CARTEL. That includes guardianships and conservatorships with legs into decedent's probate estate cases whether or not the decedent was a ward or non-ward.
C A R T E L
Cartel definition: an international syndicate, combine, or trust formed especially to regulate prices and output in some field of business – the protection industry segment to the decedent’s probate estate case.
#1) noun: cartel; plural noun: cartels
an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.
"the Colombian drug cartels"
In a guardianship situation, the competition is the opposing party, the complaining party and their lawyer who could very well be part of the 'cartel' billing with no intentions of a successful conclusion which would result in $00.00 billing. Got it?
Opposing party, the complainants are known as: 'angry, ungrateful, greedy heirs' and 'pre-mortem will contest’.
Does it get any uglier? I think not but that’s the motive and intentions of the Guardianship Cartel for a long list of self serving interests to control the court for: profit and/or job security. People churned into products to feed the probate machine, the combine.
And we the people, the taxpayers who are future products of this cartel are funding this lucrative criminal enterprise with our tax dollars including picking up the tab for MEDICAID when the estates are drained, when income is redirected into the cartel’s pockets.
I hope the IRS is aware of how easy it is to hide income and unearned income while we the average citizens are supporting this enterprise.
Are all guardianships wrongful, bad and abusive? No.
Are all judges part of and beholding to the probate cartel, the combine? No.
In my opinion this fits; and I believe society needs to know what is in their future unless they take immediate preventive actions: Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and Property along with advance directives with boxes of copies to be used as needed to wallpaper the walls of health care facility if and when you or your family member is in a hospital UNDER OBSERVATION or ADMITTED AS A PATIENT.
But read more on CARTEL that includes: LAWYERS – PROFESSIONAL GUARDIANS and CONSERVATORS with legs into BANKS a ring in real estate, used car industry, resale shops. Look around your house. When a court appoints a Guardian of Estate, before the ink is dry the court appointed fiduciary has 100% control of everything you have in your residence(s) in your vehicles, in your safe deposit box(es) with no oversight.
More on CARTEL:
a consortium of independent organizations formed to limit competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or service; "they set up the trust in the hope of gaining a monopoly"
corporate trust, combine, trust
consortium, syndicate, pool - an association of companies for some definite purpose
drug cartel - an illicit cartel formed to control the production and distribution of narcotic drugs; "drug cartels sometimes finance terrorist organizations"
oil cartel - a cartel of companies or nations formed to control the production and distribution of oil
Probate Cartel has the immunities and court protection of a public cartel although Probate Cartel is a private Cartel with Public Cartel protections with the judges with the rubber stamps approving the activities.
A cartel is a formal, explicit agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production.
[1] Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where the number of sellers is small (usually because barriers to entry, most notably startup costs, are high) and the products being traded are usually commodities. Cartel members may agree on such matters as price fixing, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these.
The aim of such collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members' profits by reducing competition.
VERY IMPORTANT AREA: PUBLIC VS PRIVATE CARTELS:
****One can distinguish private cartels from public cartels.
In the public cartel, a government is involved to enforce the cartel agreement, and the government's sovereignty shields such cartels from legal actions.
Inversely, private cartels are subject to legal liability under the antitrust laws now found in nearly every nation of the world.
Furthermore, the purpose of private cartels is to benefit only those individuals who constitute it, public cartels, in theory, work to pass on benefits to the populace as a whole.
Competition laws often forbid private cartels.
Identifying and breaking up cartels is an important part of the competition policy in most countries, although proving the existence of a cartel is rarely easy, as firms are usually not so careless as to put collusion agreements on paper.[2][3] "
And now did he get away with it so long if the court is monitoring or even reading the reports?
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