A 29-year-old woman was arraigned on January 9, 2024, in the 71B District Court in Tuscola County on one count of Embezzlement from a Vulnerable Adult-$1,000 to $20,000, and one count of Uttering and Publishing, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Both charges are felonies.
The defendant is alleged to have forged checks from her grandmother’s checking account, payable to herself and her husband, totaling over $1,000 in funds fraudulently taken from the account. The victim has been a resident at a Tuscola County nursing home since 2018, and her finances were handled by her daughter, the defendant’s mother, until early 2023. This included monthly income from a pension and Social Security.
The defendant’s brother was made conservator in early 2023 due to an illness afflicting their mother. At this point, apparently fraudulent checks were discovered, alleged to have been forged by the defendant.
“Unfortunately, our defense of vulnerable adults and their finances must not be blind to fraud from family members,” said Nessel. “My office will continue to pursue justice for vulnerable adults, and we will work to ensure their assets are not treated as fair-game to pilfer when they transition into long-term care settings.”
Compliance Perspective
Issue
Financial abuse takes many different forms. Someone with a legal obligation to handle a resident’s finances may fail to use the funds for necessities like food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare, putting the resident at risk of harm. People with legal obligations to handle finances include fiduciaries such as agents under power of attorney, trustees, guardians, conservators, Social Security representative payees, and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) fiduciaries. If family or other individuals step in to manage a resident’s finances, some may try to take money or assets for themselves, which can seriously impact the resident’s finances and may result in an inability to pay their nursing home or assisted living community bills. A facility is required to report any allegations of misappropriation or exploitation of a resident’s funds or personal property to the State Agency and to appropriate local authorities.
Discussion Points
- Review your policies on misappropriation of residents’ belongings or funds. Also review your policies and procedures for working with residents’ financial caregivers. Ensure that your policies are reviewed at least annually and updated when new information becomes available.
- Train all staff about abuse, neglect, and exploitation of residents, including misappropriation of personal belongings or funds. Also train appropriate staff to monitor payments to the nursing home or assisted living community, as unpaid bills may be a result of financial abuse of the resident. Document that the training occurred, and place the signed document in each employee’s education file.
- Audit to ensure that residents’ bills are being paid, and that resident financial caregiver documentation is on file, such as copies of a power of attorney instrument, Social Security representative payee authorization, or a guardianship court order. Staff should be aware of compliance and ethics concerns and understand their responsibility to report any violations to their supervisor, the compliance and ethics officer, or via the anonymous hotline.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
