Personal Rep Embezzles Trust

[mthoel]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon, crime happened in WA.

My father passed in 2000, and opted to have his best friend, who was a stock broker, manage his estate. The first year was ok, got the statement from the rep on his spending and taxes and such. Since then, things have gone down hill. We had tried for couple of years to make contact for financial reasons. Finally when we were unable to reach him, we went to the courts who ordered the documents. We still never received them, so we changed the rep through the courts in order to obtain the financial records. Once removed, we got statements of all accounts, and all funds were gone. We were devastated. He had written checks to himself in the amount of $14000 from one account with out approval, also from that account, he wrote checks to cash in the amounts of $57,000, and also several checks payable to Legends Casinos. In total, we estimate we lost $200,000.

Now I have tried for several years to not only contact the man responsible for this, but I have been in contact with the Sheriff's dept and prosecuting attorney's office, but can't seem to get their help. Initially we had a lawyer for the trust, but when we received documents stating there was no money left in the trust, he was unable to render his services to us.

This man is guilty, and we need help prosecuting him. My dad worked hard all his life and saved, saved, saved to insure we would have a secure future. What can I do from here?

 

[Dandy Don]

It's hard to determine from your posting whether the money was stolen from the trust or from a probated estate (was there actually a probated estate in county courthouse probate court?), but after a probate or trust attorney has determined the exact particulars of your situation, your attorney will need to file a lawsuit against the party for breach of fiduciary duty and/or theft or misappropriation of funds, embezzlement, etc. (whatever is applicable).

If probate was done, the original PR never provided any type of official accounting for the court?

This is considered as white collar crime and the local authorities, while it is their responsibility to consider and take complaints from aggrieved parties like yourself, may not have the budget to prosecute all the cases they would like to prosecute and so you will have to take the matter into your own hands if you want restitution.

And you will also want to file an ethics complaint against this so-called broker with the National Association of Securities Dealers (www.nasd.org) so that other clients who may be considering using his services will be warned against him if they are diligent enough to check his background first.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])