Authorities fighting back
Imagine preparing to sell your home or property only to discover that you no longer own it! That’s what’s happening to a growing number of Floridians caught in a pervasive consumer fraud scam. There’s a new focus now on the local and state level to go after the thieves involved and right a wrong to the victims, who are often elderly.
One of the latest victims is 86 year-old Shirley Gibson of Miami. When she tried to pay her property taxes this year on a vacant lot she owned, she was told the taxes had already been paid. It turned out the property had been stolen and resold for $230,000 without her knowledge. Last month, Miami-Dade police arrested three people in the case and charged them with grand theft, money laundering, and a host of other charges. They’re accused of forging Gibson’s name on a quit claim deed, recording the deed in the clerk of court’s system, and then selling the property for $230,000 to a New York development company. The title company involved was also a victim, losing the entire amount in the illegal sale. The good news: Gibson’s lawyer is in the process of getting the property back in her name as rightful owner.
Florida’s large elderly population is increasingly being victimized in these schemes. The state currently ranks second in the country for elder fraud with over $84,000,000 lost in 2020 by those over age 60, according to the FBI. This past spring, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody teamed with Senator Danny Burgess (R-Pasco County) and Rep. Colleen Burton (R-Lakeland) to pass HB 1041 to provide greater protection to Florida’s 5 million seniors. The new law expands the jurisdiction of Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution to include specific authority over crimes against elderly persons and disabled adults.
The law now offers additional means of proving abuse and exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult by criminalizing the intentional isolation of vulnerable adults from family members. With this senior protection enhancement, law enforcement and prosecutors will have the authority to intervene prior to irreversible physical harm or financial loss that the isolation is designed to facilitate or conceal. It also criminalizes previously uncharged conduct of an exploiter who changes the terms of the will or trust of a vulnerable adult in order to benefit the exploiter or a co-conspirator. Statutory changes now require forfeiture of inheritances under a will, through a trust, through joint tenancy or contractual arrangements for a person convicted of abuse, neglect, exploitation or aggravated manslaughter.
In addition to working with lawmakers to pass HB 1041, Attorney General Moody created Florida’s Senior Protection Team—an intra-agency group of experts working with law enforcement and outside organizations to fight fraud targeting older Floridians.
LMA Newsletter of 7-26-21
