“Caregivers” Unduly Influence Decedent to Steal Millions
In this case, which was a resounding victory for Keystone, we helped our client bring her deceased brother’s financial abusers to justice. These abusers were posing as her brother’s “caregivers,” when in reality, they were trying to take advantage of him financially because he lacked the capacity to protect himself against bad actors due to severe mental illness. Their abuse began when they moved into his mansion and gradually started to take control of his life. One of the main tactics they used to do this was undue influence.
One of the caregivers, for example, unduly influenced the decedent to sign a power of attorney that granted him access to the decedent’s finances and medical records. Even though the decedent had intended for the power of attorney to remain in effect for only a temporary time period, the caregiver remained using the power of attorney for the entirety of their relationship and even after his death to siphon millions of dollars from the decedent’s financial accounts.
But this wasn’t even the worst of it. These pseudo-caregivers were providing the decedent with mind-altering substances that were causing his physical and mental health to decline. Eventually, the decedent succumbed to his health issues, and the caregivers, who had been evicted from the home not long before, moved back in, claiming that it had been gifted to them by the decedent. They stole valuable property from the home and even financial documents to hide their crimes.
Given these complications, it was difficult for Keystone to prove these caregiver’s financial crimes, but our efforts paid off, because the caregivers not only had to pay back what they owed to the decedent’s estate, which was about $2 million, but they also had to pay an additional $1 million in damages. They also have been criminally charged to boot.
Read the full case study to learn the details of the case.
