Registered Nurse and Disbarred Attorney Charged with Stealing More Than $2 Million from Elderly Woman’s Estate

ANCHORAGE February 28, 2013 — U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that a registered nurse, formerly of Anchorage, and a recently disbarred California attorney were indicted by the federal grand jury in Anchorage, Alaska, of devising a scheme to obtain in excess of $2 million between May 2007 and August 2009 from the Trusts of Juanita Gielarwoski, now deceased.

Brian Ben-Israel, 53, of Duluth, Georgia, and Philip Eric Myers, 60, of Santa Barbara, California, were charged by the federal grand jury with one count of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud. Ben-Israel was also charged with three counts of filing false tax returns.

According to the indictment, in 2006, Ben-Israel was a registered nurse residing in Anchorage and working at Meridian Psychiatric Consulting Group. Ben-Israel met and befriended Gielarowski and her daughter, who were both patients of Meridian Psychiatric Consulting Group; Ben-Israel became a health care provider and “financial advisor” to both. Myers, an attorney licensed at the time in the state of California, was versed in trust and estate matters. From at least 2004, Ben-Israel was a business partner and friend of Myers; Ben-Israel introduced Myers to Gielarowski and her daughter.

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Registered Nurse and Disbarred Attorney Charged with Stealing More Than $2 Million from Elderly Woman’s Estate