It is not uncommon for us to hear about stories of fraud, elder financial abuse, and forging of wills. In actuality, elder fraud and inheritance fraud is all too common.
- The usual case of inheritance fraud involves an elderly person with few family ties.
- Typically, the estate value of the elder would be in the tens of thousands. Sometimes in the hundreds of thousands.
- Criminals tend to prey on these types of situations so there are fewer questions during the probate process. These cases are more likely to “fly under the radar“.
In a recent Ohio inheritance fraud case, however, a group of three scam artists chose to ignore those rules. According to media reports:
- Susan Pioch, 58; Maragaret McKnight, 40; and Kurt Mallory, 51, each face one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud, 21 counts of bank fraud, seven counts of mail fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and additional counts of money laundering.
- They have been arrested for their part in cheating their way to gain control of a more than $2.2 million estate.
- According to a federal indictment, Fewlas executed a will in 1993 which devised his entire estate to family. After he died in 2010, Mallory and McKnight, the upstairs tenants of his duplex, forged a new will in Fewlas’ name. That will was drafted an filed by Pioch with the Lucas County Probate Court.
- McKnight was named executor of the estate and the trio succeeded in obtaining court authority to take possession of Fewlas’ assets. Among the items purchased with the fraudulently-obtained assets were a used car dealership, Discovery motor home, classic 1972 Chevrolet El Camino, Kia Soul, and property. More than half a million dollars in cash was also withdrawn.
Any West Palm Beach probate litigation attorney knows that, although a case with these kind of numbers is rare, inheritance fraud in Florida is much too common. The best way to prevent this from happening to you is to always question events that don’t look right, and always get a second opinion from a trusted Florida estate planning attorney.
See http://www.pankauskilawfirm.com for videos and information on Wills in Florida, Florida Trust Law, Estate Planning, and Estate Administration in Florida.