Regarding the legal industry and its “never waste a good crisis” mentality, James R. Copland from the Manhattan Institute has a good column out today entitled Litigating over the environment makes big bucks for trial lawyers.

The story of a California bank teller who stole money from two accounts poses a thought-provoking question for those in our audience who like legislation that elevates crimes against some people over others.  The teller stole $40,000 from the account of her elderly aunt, but also stole a $33,000 inheritance from the account of a teenage girl that was received upon the death of her mother.  One of the charges facing the teller is for felony elder fiscal abuse.  We’d love to hear explanations that could be offered to this teenage girl as to why stealing from the elderly woman was worse than stealing the inheritance from her dead mother.  Something to ponder….

More public administrator/guardian office drama comes from Nevada as one county looks at reconfiguring the office while next door in California, controversy still surrounds the firing of Orange County ADA Todd Spitzer.

In the Stories of Denial section, several new letters are posted.   A reader from Nevada makes the ever so important point about people’s reactions to those of us having experienced Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions:

I think the hardest part (besides the obvious) was the fact that people would give me that strange sideways look as if to say, “what are you leaving out of this story….you had to have done something to deserve this…….this stuff just doesn’t happen in America to the innocent.”

She is absolutely right.  Too often, people find comfort thinking that IRA targets must have done something to deserve what happened or somewhere must have done something wrong.  Sorry folks, but as the reader observes ” it DOES happen everyday to good people just trying to do the right thing.”

And Richard from California describes an estate looting action allegedly occurring via a trust.  This case illustrates a couple of EstateofDenial.com favorite points.  First, it’s sometimes hard to know who first broached the idea, but partner disgruntled family members and/or wannabe heirs with a dishonest attorney and the formula for estate abuse is quickly created.  Second, while estates of high value or high profile individuals often get media attention, estates of more modest values can be equally appealing targets.  We’ve said this repeatedly over the years and the case described again makes the point.

Our friend Dean Libey from Washington has sent notice that he’s posted a video regarding the guardianship of his mother.  We’ve also added a couple of links to give additional background on the situation and one county’s effort to thwart transparency at any cost.

As numerous stories today involve county governments, have we mentioned lately our strong view that this is probably the most incestuous, corrupt and totally unaccountable level of American government?

And last, but certainly not least, Bill Dedman has a new story out today about Huguette Clark.  Familiar patterns are emerging, but we’ll save that until tomorrow.

The estate looting world certainly seems active these days.  Guess uncertainty during these turbulent economic times enhances the certainty for others that asset looting is a viable, though purely evil, means by which to acquire wealth.

Let’s look at a few of our new stories.  Here in Texas, a father has filed a civil suit against his son who is already charged with murdering the man’s elderly father, the son’s grandfather, as a means of recovering property acquired by the son from the grandfather through alleged use of undue influence.

Investigations of Huguette Clark’s life and estate status continue to expand as her lawyer is alleged to have received millions of dollars in gifts and today it’s reported (who knows how it was obtained?) that the “next of kin” contacts listed on her medical report don’t exist!  As someone we love dearly would say — sketchy!!!

It was with trepidation that we posted a “fluff” piece put out by the San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency extolling the virtues of their Public Administrator/Public Guardian’s office.  While we acknowledge that instances likely exist in which these offices sometimes provide an important public service, the pages of EoD are increasingly filled with stories of public administrators performing perhaps not so ethically.  In fact, shortly after finding the San Diego piece, we came across an update on Rita Hunter, a former Missouri public administrator, with all sorts of legal problems connected with alleged abuse of her office.

Then shortly thereafter once more, our sights returned to California with two highly intriguing pieces about Todd Spitzer, an individual until recently viewed as a contender to be Orange County’s next top prosecutor.  Instead, he has now been terminated, per Spitzer, “saying he was improperly fired from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office over a routine phone call to the Public Guardian’s Office to check into the status of a case.”

In knowing the corruption associated with California guardianships/conservatorships and other probate venues, it was not surprising that within minutes of publishing the Spitzer articles, the following comment appeared:

This is the tip of the ice berg. Seniors are running for cover. Members of the Public Guardian’s staff have threatened to undo living trusts and powers of attorney to gain control over the property of retirees. Apparently, Williams only cares about seniors who have estates worth something.

Sounds like Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions are at least one economic activity (sadly) thriving in California!  We will be watching this situation with interest and especially invite any of our California readers to weigh in.

Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oréal heiress, has written out of her will the photographer accused of abusing her trust.  Likely a good thing.  Meanwhile, Pamela Carvel, niece to the late Tom and Agnes Carvel, has been barred from bringing additional litigation against the Carvel estate based including further assertions that either she was heir to the estate or that her uncle was murdered to cover up a multimillion-dollar embezzlement.  We’ll withhold comment on this one as the circumstances around Carvel’s death raise interesting questions.

We’re back from a great time in Washington D.C.  The rest of this week will be spent in catch-up mode with numerous articles to post and hopefully, time worked in for commentary as many interesting things are happening.

MSNBC.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman recently wrote a two-part piece on questionable activities regarding the estimated half-billion-dollar estate of Huguette Clark.  (Part one of the investigative report, At 104, mysterious heiress is alone now and Part two, Who is watching Huguette’s millions?)  Here at EstateofDenial.com, this case has the markings of what we call an Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) action in which probate venues and/or probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships or powers of attorney) are used to loot assets of the dead, disabled or incapacitated.

In an update piece, Dedman quotes an Adult Protective Services official’s description of people across the country saying “You’d better do something. This happened to my grandmother. Don’t let it happen to this woman.”  Our efforts to educate Americans regarding the growing threat to their liberty and property through estate looting actions began with a 2008 column entitled ‘Grave’ Problems Ahead:  Looting Assets of the Dead and Disabled revised from an earlier Texas-based piece.  Traditional media outlets giving new attention to this growing problem is always welcomed.   Public reaction will hopefully serve as an impetus for MSNBC.com’s continued reporting on this story.

The Clark estate case creates an opportunity to make a few points relevant to Americans of all economic levels about the prospect of probate abuse.  First, as the APS quote indicates, cases of financial exploitation are routinely - though often quietly - happening across this country.  Limited reporting should not be viewed as an indicator of the issue’s magnitude.  People get excited upon hearing about these cases, but many more happen with few people knowing and even less caring.  Too often people think it can’t happen to them.

Be aware that the brevity sought by today’s media provides great cover for grave robbers, property poachers and other asset looters, while an unsuspecting public remains relatively clueless of the “up for grabs” climate surrounding their assets.  A word count of 700 or less rarely provides opportunity to accurately portray these cases.  To his credit, Dedman’s piece is lengthy as is often needed to convey the intricacies of an estate abuse (proven or alleged) story.

One of the few maxims relating to estate abuse or other probate corruption is that while general patterns exist, superficial roles don’t automatically identify the “good” and “bad” players.  With this, professional positions or a guise of social respectability can provide an effective platform for highly unscrupulous acts.  Lawyers or accountants absolutely aren’t always the good guys nor are social service networks.  Same goes for judges.  Family members or wannabe heirs are equally unpredictable.  APS involvement may be good in this case, but experienced EstateofDenial.com readers know that government intervention can just as easily result in new and different abuse.  The bottom line:  never in these cases assume anyone, especially due to their capacity, is automatically working on the side of good.

Per Dedman’s article, “the person’s income doesn’t matter” for APS intervention.  Estate size also doesn’t much matter when it comes to looting actions.  High-profile, high-dollar estates may attract attention, but as wealth is relative, estates of modest means ($500,000 to $1 million) have their own special appeal.  Steal $250,000 from a bank, law enforcement reacts.  Similar amounts stolen from an estate are usually ignored leaving the often-cost-prohibitive civil court system as the only avenue of recourse.  Ignoring the criminality of looting modestly-valued estates heightens the risk, but we’ll continue emphasizing IRA perpetrators’ awareness of the relative unlikelihood of criminal charges as a means of forewarning the public to the real threats that exist.

The same Manhattan D.A.’s Office unit that prosecuted the Brooke Astor case is reportedly looking in to the Clark case.  The EoD Commentary section contains our many pieces on the Astor case.  A common theme throughout the investigation and trial was “it happened to Brooke, it could happen to you.”  The mechanics of estate abuse are often similar - whether with an estate of $50,000, $500,000, $5 or $50 million or more.

Seems like Huguette Clark is likely to spark a revival of that theme.

We’ve posted a story out of Akron about one murder-for-hire suspect who is pleading guilty with two more to come.  This was a tragic case of a young woman who appears to have plotted the death of her mother in order to benefit from her mother’s estate.  This case was highlighted in our column Murder becoming an inheritance fast-track?

Here at EstateofDenial.com, we are big fans of Judge Andrew Napolitano.  In his most recent Freedom Watch broadcast, the Judge quoted his friend Glenn Beck as warning people to “watch the other hand” explaining that “inevitably when people and the government are engaged in a great debate, the government wants you to overlook the other things they are doing that we are not debating.”

Napolitano went on to say that “the government shouldn’t be watching us - we should be watching the government when it compromises liberty, when it steals property, when it invades privacy.”

Wow!  Needless to say, this immediately brought to mind many aspects of the estate abuse and probate corruption addressed on this site.

Here’s the audio clip:

FreedomWatchNapolitano100821

And speaking of watching out for our freedom and of engaging in the public policy progress, we hear from some folks who are truly inspirational with their intensity, creativity and sheer determination in fighting probate corruption and other abusive actions.  Others are happy to deride us and convey sentiments that activists efforts won’t ever make any real difference.  The naysayers are welcome to their views.  Nothing in life is guaranteed, certainly not success when it comes to political or any other type advocacy effort.  If, however,  a choice is to be made, anytime anywhere we’re proud to be on the side of action, of caring, of conviction and being able to look anyone in the eye and say at least we tried.

In the vein of protecting freedom, we’re off to Washington D.C. tomorrow for the Americans for Prosperity Foundation Defending the American Dream Summit.  We’ll be doing some web site posting along the way, but will also be providing updates via Facebook and Twitter.  Use the links to the left to join us there.

Stay tuned.

Posted a few new articles.  Janet Phelan has sent us her latest column detailing how the professional fiduciary license of Melodie Scott, the infamous California conservator, has not only been denied, but reportedly she’s already filed an appeal.  One has to hope this oversight system might have some integrity - especially for the woman who presumably inspired it - but only time will tell.

Another new post on our Stories of Denial page provides good analysis of a predatory guardianship action.  In seeking assistance from an empathetic Area on Aging official, this eye-opening brush with corruption served to demonstrate these actions’ neutering effect  with those in government who may be truly well-meaning.

“That’s the whole point,” I told him.  “Here you are the director of a major service organization serving many clients across a very broad region, but in the face of this situation you are completely helpless. This is a person that we can recognize is not getting the quality of care or the choice of care she wanted, but we are unable to act on that knowledge to improve her situation because of the obstruction of this hostile guardianship.  From this you can see that there are not two recourses available to her, there isn’t even one, because the system functions in a way biased to serve those who would take advantage of the impaired person. All this so-called report amounts to is another page in the chapter of cover-up.”

Click here to read the entire post.

And interesting developments in the case of Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress with empty homes, no heirs and “estate managers” with interesting histories.  MSNBC.com recently published a special report , Part one: At 104, mysterious heiress Huguette Clark is alone now and Part two: Who is watching reclusive heiress Huguette Clark’s millions?.  Additional background information is available here.

The Manhattan D.A.’s Elder Abuse Unit, the same office that prosecuted Anthony Marshall and Francis X. Morrissey in the Brooke Astor estate looting case, has launched a criminal inquiry.  Huguette’s estate is said to be worth four times that of Brooke Astor’s and EoD would remind our audience to take note regarding this and other cases as the mechanics of asset looting cases often follow similar patterns whether estate values are $500,000, $5 million, $50 million or more.

Forewarned is forearmed!