The Bonadio Group, a Top 50 Firm based in Pittsford, New York, is taking aim at the growing problem of elder financial abuse by helping protect senior citizens.
June is recognized as Elder Abuse Awareness Month, with June 15 designated as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
"A lot of the cases we do are definitely peer to peer," said Brad Hasenauer, a certified fraud examiner and consulting manager at The Bonadio Group. "It's someone physically known to the client. We've worked on cases in the past where a client's son passed away, tragically, a young adult. No mother wants to bury their son. A childhood friend was always over at the house, and once the friend passed away, things got ugly, to say the least."
The friend started financially exploiting the mother. "He started taking her debit card, misappropriating funds, spending money on things that were not for her benefit," said Hasenauer. "He ultimately was able to convince her to sign over the deed to her home. She paid rent for a home she already owned, and then he evicted her a year later because he got bored dealing with that."
He noted that only about one in 44 cases of financial exploitation are ever caught or even brought to the attention of authorities like Adult Protective Services, which he recommended accountants contact in such cases.
In another case that came to his attention, a fraudster financially exploited an elderly man. "He had a nice property, well manicured lawn, a relatively new-looking used car that was almost in pristine condition," said Hasenauer. "This individual, one way or another, became known to the client. She moved in, and that's when everything went downhill. She started having him live in his own basement. She started throwing parties at his house. She left to go on a vacation off his money with friends, and then he was found alone, when neighbors put in a distress call."
They found him on the floor covered in feces and maggots, and he sustained injuries that caused him to be hospitalized, needing a higher level of care to the point where he never returned home.
"The hospital tried dispatching him back to his own home, but the perpetrator was home and did not allow that to happen," said Hasenauer. "She essentially took advantage of his own house. She ended up stealing over $200,000 over the course of three years, spending $20,000 on things like Venmo, Cash App and PayPal."
The Assistant District Attorney requested those records, and the team put together a list of individuals and were able to confirm that many of them were known drug users or drug dealers.
The perpetrator blew out the transmission on the car and left it abandoned on the side of the road. The drug gang even stripped out the copper plumbing in the house, leaving only a single sink. Before that, the house had been well cared for and with a driveway freshly coated with sealant before the situation went downhill. The elderly resident was forced to move to a long-term care facility after leaving the hospital.
Accountants can help, for example, when they notice suspicious activity on a client's tax return. "A phone call to Adult Protective Services is always warranted," said Hasenauer. "They're the people that know how to help older adults. I have this concern, and that gets eyes on it. If you have family members that you know of, then it's always good to reach out to them as well."
Hasenauer sits on an enhanced multidisciplinary team across New York state through a program run by Lifespan of Greater Rochester.
"I've learned that every county handles things differently," said Hasenauer. "You might run into law enforcement that's gung ho about this with boots on the ground. They're seeing the disaster that's going on in that home, and say oh my gosh, this person was left for dead for four days on the floor. How are they alive? And then you get other law enforcement officers that might not run into a situation and might not know the laws that are out there."
He advises people not to rely on their financial institution to catch this activity. "They rely on technology, and we all know technology isn't perfect," he said.
