Legal pigs at government-run troughs

Steven Rondos, a lawyer appointed by the court to protect disabled and incapacitated clients, including victims of medical malpractice and personal injury cases, is now accused of stealing “potentially millions” of dollars from those clients.  This is another example of an Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) via trusts, wills and guardianships case often characterized by the legal industry and even government as an issue that doesn’t really exist.  But it does – and it can be devastating.  Read also this EoD News Archive story from US~Observer about another Washington state guardianship case and how things can play out.

Rondos is thought to have stolen more than $4 million from 23 clients.  Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau attributes the non-detection of Rondos’ activities to a failure of the state’s system of monitoring guardianship accounts.  The theft sometimes continued after victims died with Rondos, upon several instances of his theft being discovered, reportedly stealing from one victim’s account to pay back another.  Besides being past president of the Bay Ridge Lawyers’ Association in New Jersey, Rondos also served as vice president of the New York State Bar Association guardianship committee.

The New York Times reports:

Guardians in New York are appointed by judges to manage the affairs of people who cannot handle their own because of physical or mental problems. Judges must also assign examiners to ensure that a guardian is handling the finances appropriately. Guardians must, for instance, present examiners an annual summary to show what, if anything, has been done with an account’s assets.

Mr. Rondos often did not file the summaries, and the examiners often did not report that failure to judges, said David Bookstaver, the spokesman for the New York Office of Court Administration.

“The court examiner failed to do due diligence,” Mr. Bookstaver said, adding that Mr. Rondos’s activities probably would have been caught earlier if the examiners had done their jobs properly.

The story then discloses:

In Mr. Rondos’s case, it appears that the examiners may have been too friendly with him and turned their heads to the fact he had not been filing his summaries, the authorities said. One examiner was fired and another suspended because of the Rondos case, Mr. Bookstaver said.

Many people are undoubtedly scrambling for cover as culpability should be widespread.  EstateofDenial.com believes that the due diligence factor extends past the court examiners.  It should also extend to the judges that appointed Rondos.  Where was their due diligence?  They appoint lawyers to be guardians, they appoint examiners for oversight and they have no accountability for ensuring that everyone is doing their job?  A couple of examiners are reportedly “taking the bullet,” and we don’t know if these judges are elected or appointed, but maybe some of them need also to be removed from their positions.

And “authorities” saying examiners may have been too friendly with Rondos is one more example of insiders taking care of their own – this time, at the expense of dead, disabled and incapacitated people.  Those who chose to not do their jobs (or fulfill their elected duties where applicable) are no better than Rondos.  Complacency on the part of the court directly contributed to these crimes.  This behavior and its accompanying weak excuses are part of why people no longer have faith in the government, especially the legal system.

Credit – good or bad – should be given when due.  Thank you once again to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for treating perpetrators of IRA cases as the criminals that they are.  This is the same office that soon will be prosecuting the estate looting case against Anthony Marshall, son of Brooke Astor.  Bold action like this is the only meaningful deterrent for those intent on looting the assets of hard-working Americans.