A nursing home business manager in Montana helped to alert
authorities to a Miles City woman who was embezzling funds from a
resident and since has been ordered to pay more than $94,000 in
restitution to her victim’s estate, the Montana Department of Justice
said.
Del Linda Frost, 60, pleaded guilty to exploitation of Arthur Yamada
in Custer County. At a hearing in December, Judge Michael Hayworth
ordered Frost to pay restitution and sentenced her to 10 years in
Montana State Prison.
Frost was appointed temporary full conservator
of Yamada in 2014 and later became his permanent co-conservator. In 2017, the
business manager of the nursing home where Yamada lived informed Miles City
police that an $8,400 check from Yamada written by Frost had bounced. Frost
wrote several more checks, which emptied the account and left Yamada unable to
pay for his care, according to a Montana
Department of Justice media release. She also closed two
certificates of deposit. Frost was unable to explain why nearly $94,000 was
missing and resigned as Yamada’s co-conservator in 2018. Yamada died that year at
age 97.
“This case was especially
troublesome, given that the defendant worked in a law office and should have
had the best interests of Mr. Yamada in mind when she was appointed as his
conservator,” Attorney General Tim Fox said in the release. “Instead of acting
conscientiously, Ms. Frost viewed Mr. Yamada as a tempting target and began
embezzling his life savings almost immediately. Financial exploitation of
seniors is a serious crime; one we must all guard against. I commend the
nursing home business manager who alerted authorities when she suspected
something was wrong, as well as my Division of Criminal Investigation’s
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Custer County Attorney’s Office for their
diligent work on this case,” Fox added.
Full Article & Source:
Montana woman who embezzled funds from nursing home resident ordered to do time, pay restitution
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