MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended a Racine County
judge for five days without pay, citing “concerning” and “obviously
unethical” behavior.
The unanimous court in an unsigned order Tuesday, May 21 said that
Racine County Judge Michael Piontek’s judicial misconduct in two cases
from 2014 warranted the suspension.
In one case, Piontek called a prosecutor without notifying the
defense attorney. In the phone call, Piontek said that any plea
negotiation should involve the defendant being convicted of a felony and
those involved in “scams like this” need to be stopped.
The Supreme Court says Piontek appeared to only admit his “obviously unethical” wrongdoing after he was caught.
In the case, Piontek did an independent internet investigation and
relied on incorrect information at sentencing. The Supreme Court calls
it “clearly improper” to conduct the research and not give the
defendant’s attorney a chance to respond.
Vivian Majors at her home in Opelousas, Louisiana, on February 20, 2019.
Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
Vivian
Majors spent her life cleaning houses while her husband, Martin, worked
as a carpenter. Their bodies broke down in their 60s. She is now 71,
living on her own and struggling to pay her bills. He is in a nursing
home and has Parkinson’s disease. She survives on a $960 monthly social
security check and $50 in food stamps. Hardened by years of physically
taxing work that left her hovering around the poverty line, Majors, now
retired, is girding herself for more years of financial hardship.
Elderly poverty was supposed to be a thing of the past. Social
security supposedly wiped out the scourge of old-age penury, signaling
one of the great social-policy triumphs of the modern era. But this is
far from the whole story. Inequality,
which has grown markedly in Europe and North America since the 1970s,
has widened the gap between the secure and insecure in all age groups,
and has exposed American seniors to financial distress in ways that
often go unnoticed.
Opelousas, Louisiana, has the highest rate of elderly rate in the US. Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
According to research from the University of Massachusetts Boston, material hardship bedevils millions of Americans such as Majors who are over 65.
Opelousas, Louisiana
(population 16,480), where Majors and her husband grew up and raised
their own children, has the highest rate of elderly poverty in the US.
Seventy-five percent African American, Opelousas is home to men and
women who have worked all their lives. But in 2017 the average
per-capita income in the town was only $15,266 a year, and 45% of its
population lived in poverty.
Mary Quick sweeps after the Holy Ghost Community Meal in Opelousas, Louisiana. Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
Few Opelousas retirees received sick leave or healthcare coverage
while they were working, and virtually none can count on a pension to
support them when they can no longer work. A lifetime of poverty rarely
translates into what the rest of the country defines as true retirement.
Instead, the working poor often stay on the job past retirement age.
The statistics from Opelousas are extreme, but its labor market’s
underlying conditions – which residents have faced all their lives – are
echoed across the country. Of those who are still of working age, 62%
of African Americans and 69% of Latinos have no retirement savings. Come
retirement, they are almost entirely reliant on social security. When
that is the sole source of income, economic hardship is likely to be the
outcome – not to the extent it was before social security was created,
but a great deal more than for workers with long histories in often
better-paid private-sector jobs.
Holy Ghost Community Diner in Opelousas, Louisiana. Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
In the US, the poverty line was set by the Department of Agriculture
as a multiple of the price of a typical “food basket” in the 1960s. It
has been updated and benchmarked for family size every year since. The
incidence of poverty for Americans over 65 has declined significantly,
even further if measured against the poverty rate in the 1930s and 40s.
Social security expenditures have played a crucial role in bringing
about this improvement. As this safety net spread and the benefits
available increased, poverty moved decisively downward.
We tend to think of inequality as shaping the lives of children and
working-age adults, depending on their educational attainment. But the
trajectory of inequality powerfully affects older people as well. Their
lives in old age are a natural extension of their experiences in the
prime working years. Social security is, in the end, insufficient to
protect a surprisingly large number of older Americans from poverty.
Vivian Majors takes care of her husband Martin who has Parkinson’s disease. Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
The US is an outlier in terms of elderly poverty – in the wrong
direction. Retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New
School, points out that a higher proportion of older Americans are below
the threshold set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development than all other advanced economies in the world except for
Australia and Switzerland. This perspective is corroborated by the Gerontology
Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Its Elder Economic
Security Standard Index provides a more fine-grained understanding of
hardship, conditional on household size, location, housing and health
status, among other variables. The index shows that in 2016 a majority
of American seniors lacked “the financial resources required to pay for
basic needs”. The numbers are higher for those living alone than those
in two-senior households, but overall the material hardship of the
elderly is significant. The variation across the states is pronounced.
But “in every state, the share of older adults living ‘in the gap’
between the federal poverty line and the Elder Index is larger than the
share living in poverty”.
Rates of old age poverty in the world. Illustration: Forbes
Theirs is an economically uneasy life. Like the “near poor” more
generally, older households above the poverty line miss out on federal
and state benefits – from Snap, or food stamps, to housing grants to
Medicaid – designed to assist those in need. They are on their own and
yet facing significant shortfalls in the resources needed to survive at a
minimally acceptable level.
Gaps were particularly problematic for women who, on average,
received $4,500 less per year in social security benefits than men
because they had lower lifetime earnings and worked fewer quarters to
take time out for caregiving.
The gender gap reminds us of one of the most important aspects of
elder poverty: it does not generally descend at the end of a career.
Instead, it is a function of the inequalities that beset people during
their working years. In this sense, elder poverty isn’t really about
elders; it is about lifetimes spent under conditions of accumulated
economic marginality.
Vivian Majors at her home in Opelousas, Louisiana. Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
Poorer seniors are likely to have been poor, or among the working
poor, most of their lives. They have held jobs that paid low wages, were
often involuntarily part-time, provided for no sick leave or health
insurance and provided nothing at all in the way of pensions.
Majors is a frugal woman. She is inclined to shut down the air
conditioner in the height of a humid Louisiana summer rather than see
her electricity bill rise beyond what she can afford. Even in her old
age, with such limited resources, she lends a hand to her grown children
when they need it. “A lot of people sometimes wonder how you’re making
it,” she says. “But you manage, you know. You’re going to survive.”
That is no doubt true. Yet we can ask ourselves why merely being able
to “manage” is the best that can be expected for a hardworking woman
like Majors. Retirement should not mean hardship in the 21st century.
Katherine S Newman is the interim chancellor of
the University of Massachusetts, Boston, the Torrey Little Professor of
Sociology, and author of Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in
the Age of Inequality (Metropolitan Books)
• This article was supported by the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and The Economic Hardship Reporting Project
UTICA, Mich. (WXYZ) — The 7 Investigators get a lot of calls from
families who’s loved ones have been placed under guardianship, and
unfortunately, we can’t tell every single story. But this one caught our
attention because of a fence that was built and because of the history
of the judge involved.
This is the tale of two fences. One holds what family members say are
two vulnerable adults inside their home. The other fence protects the
huge home that belongs to the people now in charge of making all
financial and medical decisions for Barbara Delbridge and Bob Mitchell.
“They
don’t want us to see in, they don’t want them to see out. So it’s the
perfect way to hide them back there,” said Gretchen Summer, Barb’s
niece.
Barb and Bob’s family members say after Macomb County Probate Judge
Kathryn George appointed Caring Hearts Michigan Inc. as their guardian.
Please note: Caring Hearts Homecare of Southfield is not affiliated in any way with Cathy Kirk’s Caring Hearts Michigan Inc.
The
caregivers put up the six-foot-tall privacy fence, even though there
was already a smaller fence in the yard. The caregivers say it’s for
Barb and Bob’s safety, but relatives who live right next door say it
prevents them from communicating with their loved ones.
“I just
want my parents back. I want them to enjoy their retirement that they
should have had, prior to this company taking over,” said Marcie
Mitchell. Mitchell tried to become her dad and step-mom’s guardian last
November because both were becoming mentally incapacitated.
“Is everyone in the family on board with Marcie being the guardian,” asked 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.
“Absolutely, we were all 100% behind her,” said Sommer.
Without
guardianship, Marcie had no authority to stop her father from driving,
or to access her parents accounts to pay for more full-time care.
Even
though Michigan law gives Marcie priority to become a guardian to
family members, Judge George told Marcie she had “grave concerns” about
Bob and Barb. Instead, the judge handed their lives over to Caring
Hearts Michigan Inc. and its owner, a woman named Cathy Kirk.
“How did the judge make you feel,” asked Catallo.
“Like a bad daughter. Like I wasn’t there for my parents enough as I should be,” said Mitchell through tears.
Marcie
says Cathy Kirk promised she would stay involved in her parents care,
but she’s no longer allowed to see them. Kirk hired another company that
she owns, called Executive Care, to provide in-home caregivers 24 hours
a day. Cathy is married to Robert Kirk, a Macomb County Public
Administrator in the probate courts.
“They’re comfortable there.
They’re healthy. They’re taken care of, we have detailed food logs for
the food that they’re being served. So Executive Care has come in and
tried to stabilize this situation,” said attorney Michael Taylor. Taylor
works for Robert Kirk’s law firm, and he’s also the mayor of Sterling
Heights.
Both Robert Kirk and his law partner have donated money to Judge George’s campaigns in the past.
Just
like Marcie can’t talk to her parents behind this fence, we couldn’t
catch up with Cathy Kirk because she too lives behind a fence: a massive
privacy gate walling off the Kirk’s large home from public access.
And the Mitchell relatives aren’t the only ones who say Caring Hearts Michigan has separated them from their loved ones.
Members
of the Franklin family say Judge George also appointed Caring Hearts
when they tried to get guardianship of their 89-year-old mother, Piera.
Mrs. Franklin is now back with her son, but only after her family
members say they were also prevented from seeing their mom.
This isn’t the first time questions have been raised about Judge George and a guardianship company.
According
to an order from the Michigan Supreme Court, back in 2008, they removed
Judge George as chief judge of the probate court over concerns about
her “questionable overuse” of a different guardianship company she was
appointing to cases.
A probate court spokesman says even though
Judge George knows the Kirks “informally through political and bar
association events… there is no business relationship” with them.
The
spokesman also says the judge isn’t allowed to respond to our questions
about past campaign contributions but says it’s, “not unusual for
attorneys to support judges for re-election” and the past support has
“nothing to do with the recent selection of Caring Hearts as a
public/professional guardian.”
The 7 Investigators asked
Judge George several questions via the Macomb County Probate Court
Administrator. The responses are below.
As for Barb and Bob’s family, they are heading back to court next month to try again to get guardianship.
“We
don’t think she has any intention of granting that to Marcie at that
time. So that’s why we have to go to you – we have to get the story out
there. There are other families that are sitting ducks, this will happen
to them too,” said Sommer.
After we started asking the court questions about this case, Caring Hearts Michigan has now offered visitation to the family.
Michael Taylor sent us this statement from Caring Hearts:
“Caring
Hearts Michigan, Inc. was appointed as guardian and conservator in this
case due, in part, to its relationship with Executive Care, a
CHAP-Certified in-home care company. Caring Hearts does not accept
guardianships or conservatorships on a large-scale basis. Prior to its
appointment, Robert and Barbara were malnourished and living in
dangerous and unsanitary conditions. Now, Robert and Barbara are safe
and healthy living in their own home. Caring Hearts will continue to do
everything in its power to provide for Robert and Barbara’s safety and
wellbeing in the most cost-effective way possible without separating
them or causing undue hardship. Their safety and wellbeing is our only
concern.”
The family denies that Barb and Bob were unsafe and that the house was unsanitary.
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office
charged a 26-year-old woman who allegedly lied about her legal
credentials and got a job in the county public defender’s office.
According to prosecutors, members of the public defender’s office
contacted the Madison County Sheriff’s Office to inform them that one of
their employees was practicing law without the proper licenses.
Investigators determined the employee, identified as Kelcie Miller,
had worked on approximately 80 criminal defense cases between October
2018 and May 2019.
Investigators said Miller used false documentation and other
fictitious information that authorized her to practice law in the state.
Miller was charged with one count of theft over $10,000 of government
property, one count of false impersonation of an attorney, and one
count of forgery. She remains in custody at the Madison County Jail on a
$100,000 bond.
There’s been no word on how these charges will affect the cases Miller had worked.
CLEVELAND,
Ohio – A Macedonia man who defrauded senior citizen investors out of
more than $570,000, in part to feed his gambling and prescription pill
addictions, was sentenced Wednesday to 6 1/2 years in federal prison.
William
Callam, 61, made false statements to three investors from Lake County
and used their money not for his business, Blackstone Real Estate Group,
but for himself and his family. The scheme was the latest for a man who
has racked up multiple criminal convictions in recent years for
defrauding investors.
Callam pleaded guilty in January to a wire
fraud charge, as well as four counts of mail fraud, and agreed to serve
a sentence of between 63 and 78 months in federal prison. U.S. District
Judge James Gwin decided to sentence him on the high end of that range.
He
also ordered Callam to pay more than $574,000 in restitution to the
victims. In addition, the judge had the U.S. Marshals Service take
Callam into custody following the sentencing.
Callam,
through Blackstone, defrauded a married couple from Mentor and a person
in Eastlake starting in 2013, doing so by telling investors that
Blackstone was in the business of financing loans to buy and
rehabilitate commercial property. Callam told investors that loans were
secured by mortgages on the property.
Callam
told them that investments in Blackstone were very liquid, that others
had invested and guaranteed a steady 6 percent rate of return. All of
those claims, as well as statements that investing in Blackstone was a
safe venture, were false, charging documents say.
Investors liquidated their annuities, insurance policies and other retirement assets to invest in Callam’s company.
The
charging documents state that Callam created false investment
statements and mortgage notes and provided them to the couple in Mentor.
That couple lost $381,571.47, while the Eastlake investor lost
$192,575.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Miller wrote
in a sentencing memo that Callam abused the investors’ trust and stole
money they saved for retirement.
“This
was not a situation in which the victims were defrauded at random by an
unknown perpetrator,” Miller wrote. “To the contrary, Callam
intentionally targeted the victims because they were elderly and trusted
him.”
She also wrote that he has a
“significant and concerning” history of crimes similar to those in the
current case. Callam was convicted of theft in 2007 for defrauding two
victims out of more than $68,000 by falsely stating he was part of an
organization to aid senior citizens and promising to invest their money
in annuities.
He was also convicted
that year for defrauding four others of $49,000 by using money given to
him for annuity payments and using it for himself.
Callam
was also convicted in 2015 for defrauding a victim of $55,000 by
falsely holding himself out as an insurance agent who was certified to
sell annuities with a guaranteed 3 percent rate of return, Miller wrote.
Matthew
Williams, an attorney for Callam, wrote in a sentencing memo that some
of the money Callam took was used to feed gambling and prescription
painkiller addictions. It said Callam no longer abuses medications.
Dean Valore, another lawyer for Callam,
said in a brief interview that he was surprised by Gwin’s decision to
have his client taken into custody following the sentencing. While
federal judges have discretion to do so and consider a number of factors
when deciding whether a defendant should remain free or be in custody,
defendants in white collar cases are frequently allowed to self-report
to prison.
Valore said Callam was “successful” in following the conditions of his bond after he pleaded guilty.
Court
records show Gwin held a bond violation hearing for Callam in April.
Why Callam was accused of violating his bond was not immediately clear.
However, the judge allowed the defendant to remain free that day and
told the pretrial services officer to let him knew if Callam does not
report for a drug test or if Callam tests positive for drugs, records
say.
“The sanctions order is designed and
intended to silence the only people asking for a second medical
opinion,” said San Antonio solo practitioner Philip Ross.
A San Antonio attorney will appeal a $227,000 sanction in which a
probate judge found the lawyer and his clients “participated in a fraud
upon this court” by lying and filing groundless pleadings in bad
faith during a guardianship proceeding involving an elderly,
incapacitated millionaire.
The judge then struck the clients’ pleadings with a so-called death-penalty sanction that killed their case.
The attorney, Philip Ross, allegedly participated in a scheme to have
the millionaire’s long-time girlfriend marry the elderly man, and then
have her new husband adopt her children, hide his assets from his
guardians, lay claim to his property and divert his Social Security
assets, among other things.
But Ross said that Charles Inness Thrash is not incapacitated and he
argued that doctors misdiagnosed Thrash with dementia and Alzheimer’s
disease. And now Ross is fighting to restore the millionaire’s legal
capacity.
“The sanctions order is designed and intended to silence the only people asking for a second medical opinion,” said Ross.
However, Bexar County Probate Court No. 1 Judge Oscar Kazen described
Ross and his clients’ behavior as an “ongoing pattern of fraudulent
conduct.”
Kazen’s May 24 order granting a motion for sanctions explains that
the guardianship involves Thrash, whom the court in January found
totally incapacitated and unable to marry or enter contracts. The court
had appointed two guardians to oversee Thrash and his estate.
Ross represented Laura Martinez, who is Thrash’s long-time girlfriend
and companion, as well as her children, Brittany and Jose Martinez.
Ross also claims he represents Thrash, but the judge has told him
repeatedly that he can’t be Thrash’s attorney.
The judge found that Ross, Laura Martinez and Brittany Martinez are
jointly and severally liable to pay $187,529 to the guardians, and Ross
must pay $30,445 himself. The court also issued punitive sanctions:
$5,000 to Ross, $2,500 to Laura Martinez and $1,500 to Brittany
Martinez. They’ll have to pay more if they appeal, and lose.
The sanctions barred Laura Martinez from pursuing future claims or
offering evidence that she was ever married to Thrash. The judge also
struck all of their pleadings that asserted claims or defenses.
‘Fraudulent Conduct’
The order said that in March, Ross and Laura Martinez schemed to make
Thrash marry Martinez. Ross was the best man at the wedding and he
signed the marriage certificate.
On March 5, Ross filed a petition for adoption that falsely claimed
Ross was Thrash’s attorney, and falsely claimed that no court-ordered
relationships impacted the parties, when the truth was that Thrash was
under a court-ordered guardianship, according to court documents.
Without permission from Thrash’s guardians, Thrash adopted Brittany and
Jose Martinez.
Separately, Laura Martinez and her children have sued the probate judge.
Later, in the guardianship case, Ross filed a second motion to recuse
the judge from Thrash’s case. During a hearing on the motion on
sanctions, Martinez testified that suing the judge separately was part
of a plan by Ross to create grounds for recusal in the guardianship
case.
In February, Ross wrote two letters and then made Thrash copy the
words in his own handwriting to file in the court case, the order said.
Ross wanted it to look like Thrash wrote the letters, and didn’t tell
the court those were Ross’ words, the order said.
Ross and the Martinez family have failed to comply with court orders
by interfering with the guardians’ duties, and concealing some of
Thrash’s assets, the judge found.
They wanted to gain control of Thrash’s property, and they appeared
before a justice of the peace to assert rights under an alleged lease,
according to the ruling. Opposing counsel confronted Ross, who admitted
the lease document was “reconstructed from memory,” the order said.
The judge ruled, “Respondents designed and carried out a vexatious
litigation campaign involving litigation against Thrash and his
property, the guardians and the court.”
After a contentious Macomb County case
raised concerns about the state's adult guardianship system, the
Michigan Attorney General's Office says it is "looking into" the matter,
and two Michigan chief judges say they'll be working with the attorney
general's Elder Abuse Task Force.
In
a joint statement, Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget M.
McCormack and Macomb Circuit and Probate Courts Chief Judge James M.
Biernat Jr. said that after a guardianship ruling made by Macomb Probate
Judge Kathryn George was called into question, the Michigan Supreme
Court will be working with Attorney General Dana Nessel.
"Vulnerable Michigan
residents and their families must have confidence that probate courts
are following the law and taking appropriate steps to protect their
rights," the statement said.
The development comes
a day after Marcie Mitchell told Channel 7 (WXYZ-TV) that when she
petitioned for guardianship over her father, Bob Mitchell, and
stepmother, Barbara Delbridge, George instead gave the role to the company Caring Hearts Michigan, Inc.
Caring Hearts Michigan then placed caregivers in the
home 24/7 via another company, called Executive Care, the station
reported. However, following George's decision, the station reported
that Marcie Mitchell and other family members have been kept away from
her father and stepmother.
Amid the ongoing dispute, Caring Hearts
Michigan told the station in a statement that prior to
its appointment, the senior citizens had been living in "dangerous and
unsanitary conditions" and are now safe and healthy in their own home,
according to Channel 7.
Dan Olsen, a spokesman for Nessel confirmed Friday that the AG's office is "looking into the case."
McCormack and Biernat Jr. also directly addressed guardianship dispute issues in their joint statement shared Friday.
Former Chatham County Probate Court Clerk Kim Birge on Wednesday was
indicted on 39 counts including racketeering, theft by taking and
violation of her oath as a public officer for alleged thefts from
accounts in her office over a two-year-period.
The indictment
returned by the Chatham County grand jury identified 18 individual who
were alleged victims between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2011, and it is
the first time Birge has been charged in a state court proceeding.
Birge,
64, is currently serving a six-year federal sentence imposed in 2015
for her guilty plea to stealing $223,000 from the Probate Court.
The
new charges, obtained on evidence presented by Chatham County Assistant
District Attorney Scott Robichaux, charged Birge with racketeering
activity by obtaining interest in and control of real estate and
personal property by improperly managing Probate Court funds and
accounts by forging or altering documents related to disbursements and
expenditures for her personal use.
It said her scheme grew from
early racketeering involving stealing from existing accounts to “become
more sophisticated and created dummy accounts into which she would
initially deposit and then tqke the monies from these dummy accounts.”
The
indictment charged the Birge “pleaded guilty in federal court to
charges related to the dummy accounts,” but “has not faced any criminal
charges related to the earlier activity of theft and fraud on individual
existing accounts, disbursement, and expenditures.”
It then named
Birge in separate theft by taking counts for each victim with sums of
with a greater or less than value of $500, but did not give a total sum
taken.
The indictment theft charged Birge with violating her oath
by a public officer with the Probate Court in that she did swear to
“well and faithfully discharge the duties of the Chief Clerk of Probate
Court (of Chatham County) ... and I will receive only legal fees.”
The
indictment stated the alleged illegal activity was unknown to the state
until on or about Jan. 4 2017, and is thus excluded from the statute of
limitations.
Then-Probate Judge Harris Lewis fired Birge on Dec. 2, 2014,
in what was described as “in the best interests” of the court. He had
placed Birge on investigative suspension without pay Nov. 20, 2014,
during a probe of “discrepancies with the services that you are
responsible for handling,” Lewis said in a termination letter.
Wednesday’s action was the latest against Birge.
As
recently as two weeks ago in Chatham County State Court, Birge agreed
to provide half of her contested county retirement to 11 plaintiffs to
settle a civil case.
At issue in the civil case were mental pain
and suffering after the 11 victims learns the money was gone from
Probate Court, punitive damages and attorneys’ fee in what plaintiff
attorney Brent Savage contended was more than $409,000 that Birge took
from his clients over at least a four-year period.
And Chatham County Director of Internal Audits Jeannie Alday
testified that her expanded review of Probate Court ledgers and related
records uncovered about 80 victims, not the 42 earlier identified,
between 2009 and 2014.
Total thefts from the court totaled “right at $1 million” plus $190,000 involving another estate, she said.
In
October 2015, Birge was sentenced in federal court to six years in
prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $751,000 for her
admissions to stealing $232,000 from Chatham County Probate Court.
U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered Birge,
then 61, to serve three years supervised release after completion of her
custody term but imposed no fine citing her inability to pay.
She remains incarcerated in a West Virginia prison, but is expected to be released next year.
At
her sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scarlett Nokes told
Moore that despite Birge’s battles with both drugs since 2008 and
gambling excesses since 2003, she did not seek help until her crimes
were discovered.
The case was in court because Birge victimized people who were trusting her to do her job, Nokes said.
Under
the terms of her negotiated plea with the government, Birge pleaded
guilty to count three of a five-count indictment, charging her with mail
fraud and federal program fraud in the scheme the government said
lasted between January 2011 and November 2011.
But under federal
sentencing guidelines, probation officers can consider all alleged
misconduct — including dismissed counts — in reaching their
recommendations to the judge.
During Birge’s appearance in court,
the judge said he found it a mystery that the 342 checks she had written
to cash, 322 were checks for less than $3,000 and only 20 in excess of
that number.
When Moore suggested that her conduct suggested she
had a reason for the check sums, Birge responded, “I didn’t try to hide
anything from anyone. ... Much of the time I didn’t know what I was
doing.
“I can’t explain why I did what I did, and I’m sorry and I just pray for mercy.”
FLINT, Mich. -- A Grand Blanc man was sentenced to serve up to a
maximum of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of
embezzlement over $100,000.
Jason Bescoe, 48, was sentenced Wednesday.
Genesee
County Prosecutor David Leyton said Bescoe swindled at least 10 clients
of more than $4 million in a fraudulent financial investment scheme.
The
Genesee County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint about Bescoe in
2017. There were allegations that he was embezzling money from clients
who had trusted him to handle their financial investments.
“Embezzlement cases can be complex with thousands of documents and
records to sort through, analyze, and piece together,” said Leyton. “I
am pleased that with a lot of hard work by my staff and investigators
from the Genesee County Sheriff Office’s Elder Abuse Task Force we were
able to convict Jason Bescoe and hold him accountable for his actions
while at the same time securing restitution for victims who had stood to
lose a lot of their hard earned money."
