NY: The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption

On July 2, 2013, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo appointed the “Commission to Investigate Public Corruption” under the Moreland Act and Executive Law Section 63(8) to probe systemic corruption and the appearance of such corruption in state government, political campaigns and elections in New York State.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will appoint the members of the Commission as Deputy Attorneys General giving the Commission broad investigative authority to probe matters that “involve public peace, public safety and public justice”.

The Commission will have the power to issue subpoenas and examine witnesses under oath.  They will be tasked with among things, reviewing the adequacy of existing state laws, regulations and procedures involving unethical and unlawful misconduct by public officials and the electoral process and campaign finance laws.  They will also examine whether existing laws and regulations have been fairly and vigorously enforced and what changes must be made to such enforcement.  The Commission is directed to make recommendations to toughen and improve existing laws and procedures.

Note: 

The Commission will hold hearings in September:
* Tuesday, September 17 in lower Manhattan,
* Wednesday, September 18 in Buffalo,

* Tuesday, September 24 in Albany

The hearings will begin at 6:00 p.m.

Source:
The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption

Inheritance guardian sentenced for embezzlement

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A lawyer appointed to oversee the inheritance of a civil rights leader's grandson has been sentenced in Mississippi to serve 30 years in prison for using hundreds of thousands of dollars for himself.

Attorney Michael Brown was sentenced Aug. 29 in Rankin County to 40 years, with 10 suspended, on two counts of embezzlement related to the estate left to the grandson of late civil rights leader Aaron Henry.

Brown, 56, of Rankin County, represented himself during the four-day trial. He remains incarcerated and was not available for comment Thursday. A telephone call to the sheriff's office was not immediately returned.

Henry, a former state legislator who led the state NAACP for more than 30 years, died in 1997 at the age of 74, leaving his estate to his only daughter, Rebecca. She died in 2000, with her estate going to her two sons, Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Guest said a guardianship was set up in Hinds County in 2000 for Henry's grandson, Demon McClinton, who was a minor at the time.

Brown was under court order to use the funds strictly for the benefit of the child, but he put the money in his personal escrow account, spending some of it on five cars over a period of several weeks in 2001 and investing $550,000 in a cemetery, Guest said.

Rankin County brought criminal charges because the checks for the Lakeland Place Garden Cemetery investment were written in the county, Guest said. Brown faces additional charges in Hinds County, where Guest said other fraudulent transactions occurred.

Brown closed the guardianship in 2006 after spending $1.2 million and then filed fraudulent paperwork with the Hinds County Chancery court to make it appear the money was properly spent for the benefit of McClinton, Guest said.

The estate was reopened in 2011 when Hinds County Chancellor Dewayne Thomas held a series of hearings that uncovered the fraud, Guest said.

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Inheritance guardian sentenced for embezzlement

Man Gets 11 Years For Bilking Elderly

Former Vancouver resident must also pay $3 million in restitution

A former Vancouver resident was recently sentenced in San Diego to serve 11 years in a California state prison and pay $3 million in restitution for operating a phony insurance company and bilking elderly clients.

Michael B. Woodward, 50, pleaded guilty to residential burglary, theft from an elder, theft greater than $500,000, transacting insurance without authorization and failure to file a state tax return.

His wife, Melissa J. Woodward, 48, pleaded guilty to failing to file a tax return and was sentenced to probation.

When Woodward lived in Vancouver and was selling plans to senior citizens, he was investigated — nearly two dozen times by one agency alone — but never charged with a crime.

The prosecution of Woodward, who had his license to sell insurance revoked in Washington and Oregon, was the result of an investigation by the California Department of Insurance and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Insurance Fraud Unit.

The Woodwards were arrested April 10 at their home in Las Vegas and extradited to San Diego, according to a news release from the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. They entered their guilty pleas in June and were sentenced on Aug. 8 in San Diego County Superior Court.

400 victims
Their approximately 400 victims in California, including more than 200 people in San Diego, ranged in age from 80 to older than 100.

“(The Woodwards) would target elderly senior citizens at their homes, telling them that for a prepaid annual fee, the victim could get an unlimited amount of non-medical services such as cooking, cleaning, bathing, toileting, dressing, laundry and shopping. To receive services, he told the victims, they should call him and provide a doctor’s note.”

But the Woodwards were the business’ only employees, according to the San Diego District Attorney’s Office.

The most Woodward would do for clients was hire a third party to provide services, or reimburse clients after they had to pay out-of-pocket.

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Man Gets 11 Years For Bilking Elderly

Fired Texas Social Services Worker Gets 10 Years

(Credit: ThinkStockImages)

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) – A fired social services worker in Southeast Texas who stole from people she was assigned to help must serve 10 years in prison.

A judge in Galveston on Wednesday sentenced 47-year-old Sylvia Ann Villarreal of Hitchcock. Villarreal on June 17 pleaded guilty to felony theft.

The Galveston County Daily News reports Villarreal must also pay $50,000 in restitution.

Villarreal worked for Galveston County’s guardianship program for nearly 15 years before she was fired in 2010. She was later indicted on a charge of theft by public servant involving funds since 2007.

The investigation began after a judge who appointed Villarreal to assist wards of the county noticed irregularities with their checking accounts. Records show many of the checks were made out to cash.

Authorities since then have implemented audits.

Full Article and Source:
Fired Texas Social Services Worker Gets 10 Years

See Also:
Social services worker in Texas stole from clients

Advocacy Group Publishes Nation’s First-Ever, State-By-State Nursing Home Report Card

TALLAHASSEE, FL) – Families for Better Care, a Florida-based nursing home resident advocacy group, published the first-ever state-by-state nursing home report card.

The group scored, ranked and graded states on eight different federal quality measures ranging from the percentage of facilities with severe deficiencies to the number of hours frontline caregivers averaged per resident per day.

“We’re excited about getting this report into the hands of public officials, nursing home owners, advocates, and—most importantly—residents and their families,” said Brian Lee, Families for Better Care’s executive director.  “Our goal is to applaud those states that provide good care while motivating improvement for those that score poorly.”

Top nursing home states included Alaska, Rhode Island and New Hampshire while Texas, Louisiana and Indiana hit rock bottom.

“A distinctive trend differentiated the good states from the bad states,” Lee exclaimed.  “States whose nursing homes staffed at higher levels ranked far better than those with fewer staffing hours.”

Three states (Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine) scored “superior” grades in every staffing measure and each ranked among America’s best nursing home states.  Conversely, of those four states with failing marks (Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas) each scored below average grades.

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Advocacy Group Publishes Nation’s First-Ever, State-By-State Nursing Home Report Card

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Report Says Texas Nursing Homes Are the Worst in the Country, And This Video Might Just Convince You

Cook County Opens New Elder Justice Center

CHICAGO (CBS) – Senior citizens in Cook County who need help navigating the court system, or fighting fraud and abuse, now have one place to turn for information.

WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports the Cook County Elder Justice Center is the brainchild of Chief Judge Timothy Evans, and is located on the lower level of the Daley Center.

Presiding Judge Patricia Banks said volunteers and staff at the center can answer questions about financial exploitation, scams, and the like. “We don’t give legal advice,” she said. “No legal advice, or legal representation; but we do want seniors who have issues, who have questions about the court system, who have questions about paperwork that they might have that they don’t quite understand – we welcome them to come in. To the extent that we can help them, fine. If we can’t help them, we’re going to refer them to someone who can.”

Banks said she and Evans noticed seniors have become a growing part of the court system.

“They’re living longer, and they’re in need … because of all types of legal issues: consumer issues, the scams, we have also elder abuse and neglect,” she said. “That’s a very big issue, because of elder abuse, and neglect, and financial exploitation, we’re hearing stories everyday about seniors.”

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Cook County Opens New Elder Justice Center

Grabbing the Purse

Dorothy Luck was enjoying the fruits of a lifetime of hard work: a well-cared-for house, a good-running Cadillac Deville, a million dollars in a bank account, another million in annuities, and a monthly income from investments and Social Security. A widow with no children or close relatives, she remains active and relatively healthy at 85.

Her comfortable lifestyle was made possible by various investments created with her husband, Leskie, who died 20 years ago. The couple co-owned and operated Luck Field, a general aviation airport that opened in 1960 in South Fort Worth, offering a landing strip and hangar rentals for 40 years, until it closed in 2000.

Shyness isn’t a problem. Luck dominates conversations, doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and can be a pistol when riled. She’s also softhearted. Her church gets 10 percent of every dollar, and Luck gives additional money to charities and friends in need.

The neat and still-elegant woman has always kept a close watch on her finances, and she believed she’d have plenty of money to last until the end of her life.

“I was very wealthy,” she said. “Now they’ve stripped me of about everything I have.”

The people stripping away her wealth aren’t con artists, muggers, or thieves, although the end result looks the same. “They” are a judge and court-appointed lawyers involved in a probate system that deemed Luck to be mentally incapaci-tated and unable to handle her affairs.

Two years ago they took control of her money and her life. She’s been writhing in the court system ever since, trying to regain control of her bank account, which has become at least $500,000 lighter since the court took over.

“I’ve worked since I was 15 years old, and I don’t deserve this,” Luck said. “It’s going to kill me. It’s aged me terribly.”

Texas, unlike most states, allows its judges to initiate guardianship cases. If a defendant in a civil lawsuit refuses to settle, a Texas probate judge can say, “I think you’re mentally incapacitated.” Then that same judge can remove the defendant’s right to hire an independent attorney and use court-appointed attorneys to settle the case in a closed hearing without the defendant’s input.

Don’t believe it?

Luck wouldn’t have believed it either. Until it happened to her.

Full Article and Source:
Grabbing the Purse

Former attorney indicted on felony charges

A former Upper Arlington lawyer faces a range of charges for allegedly forging documents and collecting death benefits intended for a minor child.

Lindsey T. Burt, 33, of Berwyn Road, was indicted Aug. 27 on felony charges of theft, forgery, tampering with records and money-laundering.

As of ThisWeek Upper Arlington News' press time, Burt was slated to appear in Franklin County Common Pleas Court Sept. 11 for arraignment.

The county prosecutor's office alleges Burt altered documents that were supposed to make Mark Chapa of Texas the legal guardian of his son, a minor who lived in Franklin County and whose mother had died.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said Burt arranged to collect the woman's Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) death benefits, which were intended to go to the woman's son.

"(Burt) altered documents to make herself guardian ... and to designate the money go into an account controlled by her," O'Brien said. "She told the natural father she had to be guardian to collect the benefits for him.

"She periodically sent money to (Mark) Chapa in Texas to kind of keep him at bay. She periodically sent him money, but it was not much."

According to the prosecutor's office, the criminal activity occurred between April 18, 2008, and April 19, 2013.

During that time, Burt allegedly collected $67,183 from OPERS, but turned over only around $12,000 to the boy's father.

Burt's attorney, Bradley Koffel, said Aug. 30 he hadn't seen the prosecution's allegations against his client, but added Burt would plead not guilty at the arraignment.

"We need time to digest what the accusations are and have an opportunity to see what the claims are and try to understand them ourselves," Koffel said. "Lindsey is deeply surprised by these allegations."

Full Article and Source:
Former attorney indicted on felony charges

Couple charged with elderly exploitation

GRAHAM – Detectives arrested a Graham couple Wednesday for allegedly exploiting an elderly relative.
 

According to the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, corporate security investigators with SunTrust Bank contacted detectives with the Financial Crimes Unit of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 16 because they were concerned about an $18,000 check written on the account of Louise Brown.

 

The check wasn’t honored because the bank was concerned it was forged, and the sheriff’s office began an investigation. Investigators found that over the period of three months, beginning in June, more than $22,000 had been taken from Brown’s account.

 

The investigation led to the arrest of Brown’s great-nephew, Michael Troy Shoffner, and his girlfriend, Sandra Lynn Johnson, both of 2444 N.C. 87 South, Graham.

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Couple charged with elderly exploitation