Diane McEwan-Loveys became suspicious of an investment scheme in which her father, Mendel McEwen of Kingston, ON, in his 80s and dealing with dementia, invested most of his retirement savings. The scheme was presented to Mr McEwen by an accountant he had trusted for years. The money seems to have been handed over in 2008 and since then there has been no paperwork and no return on the investment. It has simply disappeared. Click here to read more detail about this story. I think you'll agree that the "investment plan" looks pretty iffy.
Though the investment scheme seems pretty phony at this point, Ms McEwen-Loveys has not had any luck getting the police to investigate.
One of the issues I deal with regularly is that seniors with dementia are sometimes easy targets for people who want to steal their money. I often hear from family members who find out that their parents or grandparents have trusted the wrong person and lost a large chunk of their savings. In this case, it was an accountant the victim had known for years. In other cases it's a stranger who rips them off. I wish I could say that the answer is for a senior's children to manage their money, but unfortunately the children themselves are sometimes the perpetrators.
Another issue is involving the police in this type of investigation. When a victim has dementia now, there is a question about whether he or she had dementia at the time the fraud took place. The dementia bring memory loss with it and it can be extremely difficult to establish the facts. Then there is the fact that sometimes you must wade through an awful lot of financial documents to find out what happened. This type of crime needs a fraud investigation team to handle it.
As our population ages, this type of crime is going to become more common and more sophisticated. Those who are getting on in age should plan ahead by creating estate planning documents. Those who are younger need to be proactive in looking out for their older relatives and neighbours.
Lynne,
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent story that tells so much, and mired in BS. This makes me very angry. Thanks to the CBC and you for letting us know what is going out there with Estate Matters.
I can't begin to tell you more about mine. TBC
Webeye
Mom & I lost over a million in real estate income properties because of secret filing, my brother committed income tax fraud, embezzled estate funds and police refused to investigate or charge him with a crime! They said it was civil. Well I went through over $100,000.00 with lawyers (now on my 3rd) yet to go to court and will never get justice with our current laws which are an invitation to commit fraud, and secret filing a 2000 year old Roman law banned in every other country but Canada. Welcome to Canadian justice. CBC refused to help me & recently with online registration on real property, thousand are victims and no one cares. BC recently reported they are trying to bring in new laws because secret filing is being used for money laundering. Doug Ford, new Premier of Ontario prior to the election promised me he would do something but did not - guess he just wanted my vote.
ReplyDelete@Trudi Trahan-upchan. It's obvious that your matter is tearing you apart. It appears so complicated that no one wants to tackle it. The RCMP can't mange what goes on in Ottawa and elsewhere. Lynne Butler and the readers of this blog know little to nothing of your case. What can we offer. We are well aware that there are 'many injustices' out there and that there will be no resolution. I too am going through Estate Hell. I feel your pain and I wish you the best but perhaps yours is a case where the system has simply let you down. There are many of these. You are not the only victim.
ReplyDeleteWebeye