On March 11, 2025, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) announced that a 43-year-old woman had been charged with one count of theft, business setting (>$10,000 – $100,000), crime against an elder or disabled person, for allegedly stealing more than $95,000 from her elderly father.
According to the criminal complaint, the defendant was appointed the guardian of her father, who lives in a private long-term care nursing facility in Forest County. In her role as guardian, the defendant was responsible for making her father’s rental payments to the facility from his account. The rent began going past due as she attempted to pay it with checks from her father’s account, which had insufficient funds.
An investigation uncovered that the defendant had stolen $95,446.02 from her father’s bank account between September 20th, 2023, and October 8th, 2024. Of the total amount, $67,102.15 was used for online gambling.
“The Wisconsin Department of Justice is proud to work to protect seniors from financial harm,” said Attorney General Josh Kaul. “Thank you to those working on the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
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.
- 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, Inc. for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
