A two-hour continuing education training session about investigating elder financial exploitation presented for Certified Fraud Examiners at the Northern Colorado Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

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Investigating Cases of Financial Crimes
Against the Elderly
Northern Colorado Chapter of the
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
August 13, 2019
Loveland, Colorado
Presenter: Don Rudisuhle MBA CFE
don@eldertheft.com
www.linkedin.com/donrudisuhle www.donrudi.com

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Definition of Elder Fraud

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My Background
• Personal
– From Honolulu, Hawaii. Now living in Laramie, Wyoming
– Raised in Mexico, lived in Europe, Africa and Asia
• Education:
– MBA 1977, Cornell University
– BS Economics 1974, Santa Clara University
– Non-degree: 1973, Sorbonne Nouvelle & Sciences Po, Paris, France
• Career:
– Former pharmaceutical company executive
– Former international development consultant
– Current occupation:
• Certified Fraud Examiner
• Forensic Accountant
• Expert Witness
• Elder Financial Exploitation Researcher

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Experience
Forensic Accountant (2005-Present)
 Independent Self-Employed Consultant (Laramie, WY)
International Development Consultant (1981-2011)
 Independent Self-Employed Consultant (California & Wyoming)
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (1976-1981)
 Financial Director, Central American Operations (Mexico City, Mexico)
Economic and Social Opportunities, Inc. (1974-75)
 Economic Development Specialist (San Jose, California)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1972-73)
 Research Assistant, OECD Development Centre (Paris, France)
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Key Qualifications
Experience:
 Work experience in 48 countries, travel in 77 countries
 Major clients include USAID, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank,
the Inter-American Development Bank, Pan American Health Organization,
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and the governments of Sweden and the UK
Software:
– MS Office & Project, Oracle RDMS, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Dragon
Naturally Speaking, NVivo qualitative/quantitative analysis software, Genopro
Languages:
– English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese (European version)
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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The USDA Multi-state Research Team
Member of an academic research team that focuses on
understanding the sociological underpinnings of EFE
perpetrated by a family member. The group meets monthly
online and also speaks at conferences, conducts webinars and
publishes papers on the identification and prevention financial
crimes against vulnerable adults.
• Iowa State University
• Ohio State University
• University of California-Davis
• University of Minnesota
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Wyoming
• Virginia Tech University
• Washington State University-Vancouver

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Your Background?
Poll Question #1
• How many of you are:
– A CPA?
– An attorney?
– A law enforcement official?
– A caretaker, guardian or conservator for an elder?
– A social or health care worker?
– Other?_________________________

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Presentation Major Points
• What is elder financial exploitation? What is
its effect on the victim and the family?
• What are the characteristics of a perpetrator?
How do they operate?
• How does a CFE or forensic accountant
investigate a suspected case? What tools are
used?
• What is the general outcome of EFE
investigations?

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Elder Financial Exploitation
• Elder financial exploitation is defined as the
illegal or improper use of an elder's resources
for another's profit or advantage.
– According to the Colorado Department of Human
Services, from the years 2011 to 2021, the
number of older adults in Colorado will increase
54 percent
– Underreporting is estimated to range from 10 to
44 cases for every reported case
– Losses to victims are believed to exceed $3 billion
annually

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CDC’s Definition of Elder Financial Abuse
• Financial Abuse or Exploitation is the
unauthorized or improper use of the resources of an
elder for monetary or personal benefit, profit, or
gain. Examples include forgery, misuse or theft of
money or possessions; use of coercion or deception
to surrender finances or property; or improper use of
guardianship or power of attorney.
– United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Applying Cressey’s Fraud Triangle to EFE
Motivation: Greed and desperation
• Victim is an obstacle to the perpetrator’s ability to acquire the
material things he/she desires
• “Keep up with the Joneses” mentality
• Family or friends are desperate for money due financial stresses
Opportunity: Occasion
– Perpetrator has power of attorney
– Victim is suffering from diminished capacity
– There is no oversight over transactions involving victim’s assets
Rationalization: Predation
– A false trusting relationship becomes the vehicle for exploitation
– Dad is old and doesn’t need the money
– Mom loved my sister more than me
– My brothers are more financially successful than I am

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It’s getting worse. Why?
• Aging Boomers increase the senior population
• Longer lifespans and attendant fragility
• Breakdown of traditional retirement vehicles
• Diminished returns on savings instruments
• Relatives are stressed by the weak economy
• Widespread moral decay in society
• Inadequate resources to pursue perpetrators
• Perpetrators are getting more sophisticated

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The Victim
Is often:
• An elderly person
• A disabled individual
• A widow/widower
• Confined or bedridden
• Chronically ill
• A lonely individual
• A trusting soul

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Who are the Victims?
• Typically, the victims:
– Are above the age of 65
– Female
– Widowed or estranged from mate
– Have some amount of savings or real estate
– Lonely, living alone, or in a facility
– Often suffering from some degree of cognitive
impairment

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Why Seniors are Frequently Targeted
• Have more assets in cash or property
• Have good credit
• Tend to be more trusting
• Don’t use the Internet for monitoring finances
• Can suffer from cognitive impairment
• Don’t know how to vet people or offers
• Don’t know where to go for help
• Can be deceived by crooks impersonating loved ones
or trusted professionals
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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The Elderly are Vulnerable to Deceit
• Elderly victims trust the perpetrator
• Are lonely and yearning for social interaction
• May be financially unsophisticated
• Are ignoring what their instincts tell them
• People with intent to deceive are clever
• Perpetrators mix half-truths with lies
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Consequences to Victim
• Consequences of Financial Exploitation
– Compromises elder’s financial security
– Degrades their quality of life
– Engenders fear and anxiety
– Limits access to health insurance and care
– Contributes to homelessness
– Causes depression and despair
– Increases costs to society i.e. Medicaid
– Destroys relationships and harmony in the family
– Heirs lose their inheritance

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Victims with Dementia
• A few things to consider:
– Persons with dementia are much more vulnerable
– Cognitive impairment affects financial decision
making
– Women and minorities are more likely to be
affected
– An Alzheimer’s victim may be incapable of
articulating a concern to family or caretakers
– Unscrupulous individuals may try to take
advantage of them

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Dealing with Incapacity
• Family, caregivers and advocates need to recognize the signs
of diminishing mental capacity in a person
• At what point should there be an intervention to request the
court to declare the person incompetent?
• Complication: Momentary instances of lucidity can be
misleading, if not frightening
• I have never succeeded in persuading the court to declare a
person to be incompetent in spite of persuasive medical
evidence
• Judges are loathe to adjudicate incapacity because it deprives
a person of their civil rights

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Impediments to Reporting
• Many victims are hesitant to report because:
– They don’t know what to do
– Unsure of what has occurred
– Denial of the facts
– Embarrassment with friends and family
– Fear of retribution from perpetrator
– Fear of isolation or abandonment from loved ones
– Fear of loss of medical or other care
– Don’t want family member to be imprisoned

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Symptoms to Look For
– Elder has recently made a new “best friend”
– Often makes large bank or ATM withdrawals
– Sends checks or wire transfers overseas
– Is unaware of his/her financial status
– Has difficulty paying bills and buying everyday necessities
– Receives mail for lotteries, prizes and contests
– Gets frequent calls from telemarketers
– Is isolating him/herself from family and friends
– Demonstrates fear or submissiveness towards caregivers
– Caregiver tends to intercede and speak on behalf of victim
– Living under squalid and unsanitary conditions

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Vehicles Used by Perpetrators
• Withdraw cash at a bank or ATM “for Mom”
• Ask victim to sign a blank check
• Victim asked to add perpetrator to bank account
• Forge the victim’s signature
• Use the victim’s credit cards
• Divert victim’s income checks
• Deposit victim’s checks “less cash received”
• Take cash back while paying with a credit card
• Persuade the victim to sign a quitclaim deed to property
• Persuade the victim to guarantee a loan
• Ask victim to employ perpetrator’s family members
• Perp conceals destination of funds by obtaining a cashier’s check
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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The Urgency of Taking Action
• Taking action is a matter of urgency. The
desired outcomes are:
– Stop the hemorrhage
– Reassure the victim
– Initiate measures to recover assets
– Hold the perpetrator accountable

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Ascertaining the Facts
• Things are not always what they appear
– Listen patiently to the elder’s story
– Does it sound plausible?
– Be sympathetic and understanding
– Learn as much as possible without probing
– Don’t frighten or alienate the person
– Assess possible courses of action
• Obtain more information, or
• Report the incident without delay

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Mandatory Reporting
On May 16, 2013, Governor Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 13-
111, Require Reports of Elder Abuse and Exploitation
– Persons observing abuse or exploitation of person 70 years or
older must report it to law enforcement within 24 hours
– Adults with intellectual or development disabilities also
included
– A person reporting in good faith enjoys immunity from civil
suit or criminal action
– Members of the clergy are exempt under certain
circumstances
– Since the law went into effect, the number of reported cases
in Colorado has reached 17,743, an increase of 50%

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Who Must Report?
• Mandatory Reporters in Colorado include:
– Medical personnel
• Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, chiropractors,
therapists, long-term care staff and others
– Home health workers and social workers
– Court appointed guardians and conservators
– Bank and financial institution staff
– Government officials
• Police and firefighters
– Clergy (under some circumstances)

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Where to Report?
• Reports can be made to:
– Adult Protective Services: call the APS intake
number for the County Department of
Human/Services where the at-risk adult lives.
• Examples: Denver (720) 944-2994, Arapahoe (303) 636-
1750, Larimer (970) 498-7770, Weld (970) 346-7676
– Your county Department of Social Services. For
contact information www.colorado.gov/cdhs
– Your local police department or sheriff’s office.

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Families Will Need Guidance
• Help families decide what to do
• Pursue legal action or negotiate?
• Identify legal resources who can help with:
– Recovery of assets
– A conservatorship or guardianship
• Tasks that families can do to keep costs down
• Write up a narrative of the facts
• Collect documents like bank and investment statements
• Make a list of persons involved in the case
• Create a timeline of events

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Penalties in Colorado
• In Colorado, there are enhanced penalties and
a surcharge for crimes against at-risk persons.
• Under C.R.S. 18-6.5-107 (7)(b) Criminal
exploitation of an at-risk person is a class 3
felony if the thing of value is five hundred
dollars or greater.

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The Perpetrator
Can be anybody!
• A family member
• A distant relative
• A romantic interest
• A neighbor
• A health care worker
• A trusted professional
• A tradesman
• A complete stranger

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Perpetrator Characteristics
– Is a sociopath and a narcissist and lacks empathy
– Is incapable of feeling guilt
– Is a wheeler and dealer
– Is domineering and controlling
– Doesn't like people questioning their judgment or actions
– Has a strong desire for personal gain
– Has a “Beat the system attitude”
– Lives beyond his/her means
– Has a close relationship with the victim
– Is unable to relax
– Outwardly, appears to be very trustworthy.
– Displays some sort of drastic change in personality or behavior
– Appears incapable of feeling guilt or remorse
Adapted from The Certified Accountant, 1st Quarter 2009, Issue #37

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Who are the Perpetrators?
Family, Relatives and Neighbors
– Siblings, children, cousins, neighbors
Trusted Advisors
– Brokers, accountants, lawyers, financial planners
Caretakers
– Guardians, conservators, trustees, medical personnel
Strangers
– Building contractors, appliance repairmen, auto mechanics,
telemarketers, door-to-door solicitors, Internet matchmaking contacts,
junk mail pitches, telephone psychics, TV hucksters
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Four Case Studies
1. A case of involving close family members
– A daughter misuses a power of attorney
2. A retired couple falls for a foreign lottery scam
– An advance fee scam starts with cold call from
Jamaica. Entire life savings sent to claim winnings
3. “Your computer has a virus!”
– An elderly widower invites a telescammer into his PC
4. “It looks like your roof has hail damage”
– The stranger at the front door claims a new roof can
be put on at no cost by billing homeowner’s insurance.

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#1. Daughter Misuses POA
• Ripe for the picking!
– An aging couple sets up an estate plan
– Couple’s daughter is trustee and POA agent
– Husband dies, wife develops Alzheimer’s
– Daughter accesses funds for personal use
– Pays off credit cards, builds custom home, buys
pickup truck, gifts cash to children, goes to Vegas
– Sibling brings civil suit, conservatorship action
– Long story short, daughter gets away with it

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#2. Advance Fee Lottery Scam
• A highly educated woman had by clever scammers
– In retirement she enters sweepstakes for fun
– One day a cold caller tells her she was won!
– To claim her millions she needs to pay the taxes in advance
– A courier will deliver her check shortly
– Repeated misfortunes befall the courier
– Money is need for his medical costs and to post bail
– Victim’s life saving of nearly six figures sent to Jamaica
– The United States Postal Inspection Service's Jamaican Operations
Linked to Telemarketing (JOLT) was ineffective in dealing with this
case
– The woman is subsequently exploited by psychics and clairvoyants
who tell her she has won millions and that they are managing her
newfound wealth for her and charging her a management fee

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#3. Your Virused Computer…
• A trusting elderly disabled man gets a cold call
– The caller is from “Windows Technical Service”
– He is on a poor crackly overseas connection
– He says that the man’s PC is sending out viruses
– He asks the man to go to a special website
– Scammers then take control of his computer
– They can fix everything for a modest fee
– Man gives them a credit card and bank account!
– A bad ending ensues

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#4. Hail Has Damaged Your Roof
• A door-to-door huckster pitches a new roof
– Shows up on the porch unannounced
– Says the roof has hail damage which he can fix
– Senior homeowner lets him put up a ladder
– In 20 seconds, he determines damage is extensive
– He produces glossy brochures from his clunker car
– Your homeowner’s insurance will pay for new roof
– Homeowner subjected to a high pressure pitch
– Homeowner gives scammer his CFE business card
– Scammer never seen again

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Long Distance Scammers
• Hallo, I am calling from Microsoft. You have virus…
• Good News!!! You have won the Costa Rican lottery!!!
• I am the Oil Minister of Nigeria. I have some funds…
• Grandma, I’m in jail in Hungary. Send bail money…
• I’m terminally ill. Can you help distribute my estate?
• We need you to deposit checks from our customers
and wire us the money. You can keep a commission…
• This is Rachel from Card Services. Your eligibility to
lower your interest expires soon. This is your final
notice…
• Our church’s roof is leaking. Can you donate…?

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Failed email Scam
“We are looking for a Clerk.”
“In spite of its today�s success and stern stance on
the market of relevant services, our company goes on
developing and improving. Our corporation
permanently works at the presentation of new
services…”
“If you are a young, conceited, pertinacious, attentive,
responsible, reliable specialist who desires to begin a
career in the legal entity with the perfect reputation,
you are welcome to apply for the vacancies we offer.
Our company cherishes its employees etc etc...”

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Do the Elderly Look at Porn
• Lonely seniors may gravitate to Internet porn sites and chat rooms
for companionship
• Both men and women visit these sites
• There is an illusion of anonymity
• Sites are easy to find and many are free
• It can lead to relationship fraud
• X-rated sites are frequently infected with malware
• Identities can be stolen and SS #s, bank accounts, credit cards and
Medicare info misused
• There was new sextortion malware discovered last month. It's
called "Varenyky" and it senses when a user is viewing porn and
activates the user's webcam when certain keywords are
encountered on the website.

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Chupi Chupacabra Gets Sextorted

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Chupi Viewing “La Grande Odalisque”
Stuffed animals like Winnie the Pooh and the Velveteen Rabbit can often become anthropomorphized but
we never suspected that Chupi would sneak into the office and use my computer to look at porn.

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Chupi Extorted by the new Varenyky Malware
Hello!
I am a representative of the ChaosCC hacker group. In the period from 23/06/2019 to 11/08/2019 we got
access to your account chupi@chupichupacabra.net by hacking one of the domain.com mail servers.
…..
At the moment, all your contacts are known to us. We also have access to your messengers and to your
correspondence. All this information is already stored with us. We are also aware of your intimate adventures
on the Internet.
…..
While browsing these sites, your device’s camera automatically turns on.Video-record you and what
you watch is being save.After that, the video clip is automatically saved on our server.
…..
From the moment you read this letter, after 60 hours, all your contacts on this email box and in your instant
messengers will receive these clips and files with your correspondence.
…..
If you do not want this, transfer 550$ to our Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet:
12iPSuHtkZ9ap9Yh8pidCsDRWtkt7sAg1u
CFE’s Note: If your client has a webcam on his/her desktop PC, unplug it when it is not in use.
With a laptop, disable the camera if possible but at a minimum, put some tape over the camera
lens. This scammer collected $715 the day after the email was received.
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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See the value of a Bitcoin Transaction
Copy the Bitcoin wallet address from the sextortion email and paste it into the search box at
www.blockchain.com/explorer to see a list of recent transactions and their values. e.g.
197npsfvDsYXR5px2ATRvrE1AhZpcjB1dX. You can hover over the green box, to see the dollar equivalent.
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Investigating Bitcoins
There are several firms that produce software that can trace
Bitcoin transactions by using social network analysis to build a
graphic representation of the movements from wallet to wallet
and eventually to monetization. One such company is Canada-
based DMG Blockchain Solutions, Inc.
They have an excellent slide presentation available on
Slideshare: An Investigator’s Guide to Blockchain, Bitcoin and
Wallet Transactions

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The Investigation: The Dance of the CFEs
A modern interpretation of Matisse’s “Dance”

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How the CFE Gets Hired
• Attorneys recruit experts based on:
– Education, certificates and training
– Involvement in prior cases
– Publications in print or online
– Presentations, seminars and webinars
– Social media presence
– Referrals from other attorneys or their clients
– Clients find the CFE on the Internet

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An Elder Fraud Investigation is Different
• It may have been going on for a long time and records may have
been destroyed as per the Bank Secrecy specified 5-year retention
limit
• It may have been discovered so long ago that the statute of
limitations has lapsed
• The victim may be deceased or suffering from dementia
• The perpetrators may have firm control over the victim’s assets and
assembled witnesses to support their claims
• The victim and/or family may no longer have resources to pursue
litigation
• The stolen assets may have already been dissipated
• Fraud may destroy the victim’s life
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Evolution of the Investigation
• How the forensic accountant gets involved
– A trust and estate lawyer or an elder law attorney
contacts the forensic accountant, usually through
a trusted referral
– The attorney calls and discusses the case
– The attorney’s client sends financial data
– The accountant analyzes the bank statements
– A report is sent to the attorneys
– Lawyer, client and accountant decide on action
– Litigation may be initiated

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Investigative Tools
• Some of the tools used in an investigation
– Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet Analysis)
– Perfect Audit (Convert bank statements to Excel)
– Adobe Acrobat Professional (Edit PDFs)
– Microsoft Access (Database)
– Genopro (Genograms)
– Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional Edition
– Online data sources (Veromi, Intelius, Domain Tools)
– Public records (Recorder, Assessor, Secretary of State)
– NodeXL (Social Network Analysis like IBM I2)
– A cut sheet-fed, high-speed duplexing scanner

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How is the Evidence Obtained?
Financial and other documents are sent by attorneys, family
members of the victim, or are obtained by the CFE by other
methods.
• Paper copies in the mail or by courier
• Electronic copies in PDF, Word or Excel
• Researching official public records
• Searching newspaper and articles
• From financial institutions by subpoena
• Interviews with victim’s family and friends
N.B. it is not unusual for documents obtained from victims to be disorganized,
incomplete and in poor physical condition

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Processing a Vast Pile of Paperwork
Wrestling hundreds of statements into a form that can be
analyzed or audited can be a daunting task
1. Type them into spreadsheets yourself (time consuming and prone to
human error)
2. Use Dragon Naturally Speaking voice-to-text software to dictate numbers
and text into a spreadsheet (faster, outstanding for report writing, but
still requires editing)
3. Use a service like Perfect Audit to process and reconcile the PDF
statements (your data is sent overseas in the cloud for proofing)
4. Purchase software like ScanWriter that allows you to keep all of the
information in-house. (powerful, reliable but expensive)

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Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500
This quality high-speed scanner is an
indispensable piece of equipment. It will digest a
stack of 50 sheets of dissimilar documents and scan
both sides in one pass and the convert them to PDF,
Word or Excel.
It rarely jams as long as you keep the rollers clean. It
is portable and I sometimes take it to a client’s
location. There are now numerous wireless models
available that are affordable to sole practitioners.
As CFEs, we know that we live in an incredibly deceitful world, so when purchasing
any expensive equipment on the Internet, you should vet online product reviews by
using a free website, Fakespot, to grade user reviews on Amazon, Bestbuy, Sephora,
Steam, Walmart, TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Fakespot uses AI to assign a letter grade from A to F by analyzing and checking for
patterns to see if paid fake reviews are making a product look better (or worse)
than it is or if the vendor is manipulating scores by deleting unfavorable reviews.
https://www.fakespot.com

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Records Are Often Not in Auditable Condition
Records sometimes arrive from the client in supermarket bags
(Photos taken on anti-corruption assignments in Bangladesh and Nepal)

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Managing Vital Information
How it is received
• Generally in paper form by courier or in PDF form by email from the attorney or
the client
How you retain custody
• Inventory all documents received in the batch
• Once in PDF format, run them through the Bates numbering routine
• Send an email back to the client and counsel detailing the contents of the batch,
the file names, the dates, the number of pages and the range of Bates numbers.
How you transmit it
• One big problem is that clients will send you electronic files in plaintext with
images of active bank statements containing large balances. Attempts have been
unsuccessful to persuade them to use tools like SpiderOak that employ client-side
encryption rather than Dropbox’s server-side encryption or just unencrypted.
How you store it
• I store multiple copies of sensitive data on offline external drives that each have
their own individual power switches. Once they are updated, they are taken
offline and powered down so that hackers can’t access them.
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Directory Structure for a Typical Case
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Example of Batching of Case Documents
A new batch is created in the Client Docs directory every time
a discrete transmittal of documents is received
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Example of the Contents of a Batch
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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Example of Bates Numbering
Once all the paper document received in a single delivery were scanned into a PDF
using the Epson S1500 ScanSnap, the PDF was opened in Adobe Acrobat Pro and the
Bates Numbering Function was used to number them all sequentially starting at where
the series ended for the previous batch. This document was assigned #743 as seen in
the lower right hand corner.
[Slide added subsequent to live presentation]

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A Victim’s Family Member
Unlawful conversion of the victim’s assets via:
• Misuse of a Power of Attorney
• Trusteeship – abuse of fiduciary responsibility
• Quitclaim deed to real estate
• Perps adding themselves to a bank account
• Persuading the victim to change their will
• Forging checks and other documents
• Depositing retirement checks “less cash”
• Stealing valuable property or cash

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Follow the Money

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Amounts Can Be Large

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Credit Cards Paid Off!

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A Pickup Truck for Mom
N.B. Mom resides in an Alzheimer’s care facility

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Master Yoda on Premature Conclusions
“Do not assume anything Obi-Wan. Clear your mind must be if
you are to discover the real villains behind this plot.“
Things are not always what they seem:
• Different parties will give totally different stories
• Confirm suspicions with multiple sources before any conclusion
• Common names may get conflated and create false leads
• Family members with similar names may impersonate each other
• Internet data may be wrong and improperly linking individuals
• Don’t chase possible dead-end leads too long
• Hire a questioned documents expert when in doubt
• Apply Occam's Razor

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A Premature Conclusion…
A woman ordered a sandwich with some customization which appeared to
have annoyed the fast food worker. When it arrived she was horrified to see
the word scrawled on the wrapper. She angrily confronted the manager
demanding the meaning of the word. He replied “It says BLT with cheese”

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The Attorney

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Selecting an Attorney
• Get a referrals from trusted sources
• Select somebody with trial experience
• Check out background from public sources
• Search for bar disciplinary actions
• Search for potential conflicts of interest
• Determine which states is licensed in
• During interview, ask about similar cases

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Making Your Case Attractive
For both civil and criminal cases:
• Help the victim’s attorney build the civil case
– Prepare financial exhibits, graphs and genograms
– Help draft questions for depositions/interrogatories
– Write arguments to disarm opposing counsel’s defenses
• Ease the burden for law enforcement
– Law enforcement and prosecutors are very busy
– Offices are underfunded and understaffed
– Higher profile crimes get priority over EFE
– A well-documented case will attract their attention

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Genograms

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Genopro Descriptors and Operators
The 62 unique images used to characterize individuals fall into six
general categories of operators:
1. Emotional (love, hate, jealous, estranged, distrust, friendship)
2. Relationship (divorced, separated, reconciled, caretaker)
3. Abuse (controlling, manipulative, physical abuse, neglect)
4. Health (Alzheimer’s, arthritis, HIV/AIDS, cancer, depression)
5. Addictions (alcohol abuse, drug abuse, gambling, recovering)
6. Other (Multicultural, immigrant)

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Outcome of the Case
• There are a number of possible outcomes:
– All parties work it out among themselves (rare)
– All parties agree to mediation
– A civil suit is filed and it ends with:
• A negotiated settlement through arbitration
• A judgment against the defendant
• A dismissal by the court
• Abandonment by the plaintiffs on financial grounds
– A criminal case is initiated

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The Prosecutor

74. 74/84
The Fate of Criminal Cases
The prosecution of EFE perpetrators in far from certain.
In many jurisdictions, the judicial system is
overburdened and priority has to be given to cases with
the highest impact, like violent crime and narcotics.
• In one instance the prosecutors were very interested the EFE
case but couldn't complete the investigation before the
statute of limitations lapsed.
• In another case, the prosecutor refused to take the case in the
absence of a civil judgment.

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Conclusion: They Always Get Away With It

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Forecasting Finances
[An actual exhibit presented at trial]

77. 77/84
Estimated Expenditures
[An actual exhibit presented at trial]

78. 78/84
Depletion of Victim’s Assets
[An actual exhibit presented at trial]

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Obstacles to Recovery
• Cash most likely has been dissipated
• Perpetrator has left the state or the country
• Assets have been transferred to a third party
• Assets have put in a trust or corporation
• Real estate has been retitled to someone else
• Complainant can’t afford cost of litigation
• Statute of limitations has lapsed
• Victim may be deceased

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A Recognized Authority on Identity Theft
Dr. Axton Betz-Hamilton is an Assistant Professor at South
Dakota State University. She is the author of “The Less People
Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and
Stolen Identity,” a powerful crime memoir in which an award-
winning identity theft expert tells the true shocking story of
the duplicity and betrayal that inspired her career and nearly
destroyed her family is perfect for true crime fans."
She has been interviewed frequently by the national media and Publisher's
Weekly gave her book a starred review and said the book has "the tension of a
thriller...[and] jaw dropping revelations. Astonishing and disturbing, this
emotionally resonant book is perfect for true crime fans.“
Her book will be released on October 15, 2019 and is available for pre-order
from Amazon and other leading booksellers.
Bio: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/axton-betz-hamilton/

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Your Personal Experience?
Poll Question #2
Have you ever had a personal experience with
Elder Financial Exploitation?
• Yes
• No
If yes, was the outcome:
• Positive?
• Negative?

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Q & A Session
• Ask whatever question you wish
• Tell your own story about elder financial
exploitation
• This slide deck can be found at
http://www.slideshare.net/eldertheft

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Quiz: Who is the Prosecutor

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The Prosecutor Revealed
Yep, it’s Hamilton Burger, the hapless LA District Attorney who always lost his cases
to that shrewd defense attorney, Perry Mason in the eponymous 1950s and 1960s
TV series. He was played by actor William Talman.