Man charged with bilking $1.2 million out of seniors says they didn't need it anyway

January 16, 2012


Man charged with bilking $1.2 million out of seniors says they didn't need it anyway



By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

They didn't need the money because they lived frugally.

That's the reason Brian Marsack gave his victims, according to one victim’s daughter, after allegedly bilking them out of their life savings by posing as a Goldman Sachs investment broker.

Edward Mancini, 91, his late wife, Joan, 79, his sister Virginia Cox, 77, and his sister-in-law Florence King, 87, lost $1.2 million combined.

They have little hope of getting it back -- joining hundreds of other senior citizens cheated out of billions of dollars a year, according to a study by MetLife.

Prosecutors say Marsack, 44, sold the family phony high-interest investments and sent them what were supposed to be interest checks each month. Edward Mancini, who knew Marsack since he was a child, said he now believes the checks were likely small amounts of his own money.

Marsack eventually confessed his crime to Mancini, but the only remorse his victims say he showed was his fear of going to jail. Marsack is to appear in 41B District Court on Jan. 25. He is charged with two counts of false pretenses, a 10-year-felony, and one count of racketeering, a 20-year felony.

"I worked all my life," said Mancini from his Harrison Township home. "I made sure I wasn't going to be a welfare recipient in my old age. And this is what I get in return. I'm 91 years old. Where's my opportunity to earn money?"

Too much trust can snare seniors into scams, experts say

Edward Mancini thought of Brian Marsack almost as family. The two had known each other so long that Marsack called Mancini "Grandpa."

Mancini, 91, attended Marsack's wedding. The older man had tried to help Marsack by buying cars from him when he was a car salesman. In 2008, when Marsack said he was an investment broker, Mancini and his family began investing with him.

So he didn't believe his daughter, Sandra Boone, when she said the statements Marsack had been sending looked like something made on a home computer, rather than like her own 401(k) statements. But prosecutors would later say that Marsack cut and pasted headers and footers that read, "RBC Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs Certificates of Deposit" onto sheets of paper.

"I wouldn't have invested with just anybody," Mancini said. "But I was saying to myself, 'I've known this guy since he was a kid.' "

Marsack's family had rented his childhood home in Chesterfield Township from Mancini.

Now, Marsack is accused of swindling Mancini, his late wife, his sister and his sister-in-law out of their savings -- a total of $1.2 million. Marsack, who Boone said confessed during a meeting at Mancini's home, is free on $250,000 bail. His attorney, Stephen Rabaut, did not return a call for this report.

"It's hard to comprehend," said Mancini, a retired engineer for Uniroyal Tire. "He's stealing from people who befriended him and tried to help him."

Unfortunately, it's all too common a story, said Rhonda Powell, director of Macomb County Senior Citizen Services.

"Seniors, they're too trusting," Powell said. "Usually it's with someone who's gotten in; they've developed a rapport with them."

A 2009 study by MetLife says seniors are cheated out of $2.6 billion each year, and the perpetrator is likely to be a relative or caregiver.

The study estimates that for every case that's found, there are likely four more cases that went undetected.

"I think people just came from a different era, when you could leave your car in front of your house with the keys in it," said Ellen Head, treasurer of the Macomb County Council on Aging. "Nobody locked their doors, and they trusted."

Mancini's late wife, Joan, began investing small amounts with Marsack in 2008.

The investment with Marsack appeared to be paying off, so Joan Mancini began investing money from her sister, Florence King, 87. King is incapacitated, and Joan Mancini was her guardian, Boone said. Then Edward Mancini's sister Virginia Cox, 77, began investing, and Mancini himself began to put some money in. Cox and King were investing money saved from local office jobs.

After a couple of years of cautious investments that appeared to be paying very good dividends, they began investing larger sums of money with Marsack.

Then in the fall, Joan Mancini became ill and died within 36 hours of being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Marsack was at the funeral, passing out his business cards and talking up his investment plan with relatives and mourners, Boone said.

Boone and Edward Mancini were going through the usual post-death bookkeeping chores and were a little alarmed to see how much money the Mancinis had cumulatively invested with Marsack.

Marsack "wouldn't tell them specifics on their investments, what type of investments they'd made or what type of funds they were invested in," said Suzanne Faunce, Macomb County assistant prosecutor for elder crimes.

Edward Mancini raised the issue with elder attorney Patrick Simasko, who immediately was concerned. Simasko called in a financial expert, who told Mancini and Boone what questions to ask and what documents to demand.

That led to an Oct. 31 meeting at Mancini's home. After about 20 minutes of small talk, Boone asked Marsack for the documents he was supposed to bring. What he told them next left them stunned.

"He confessed he had stolen all the money. He claimed to have day-traded it away," Boone said. Marsack even told them that the two sisters didn't need the money, anyway, because they lived frugally, Boone said.

Marsack begged them not to send him to jail, Boone said, but she called the police.

"It was terrible, it was devastating," Boone said. "My dad just could not believe it. He had actually defended this guy when I first broached the subject, saying, 'He would never steal from me.' "

Prosecutors froze Marsack's bank accounts, Faunce said. They recovered $100,000 from the bank accounts, which is now in escrow, waiting for the disposition of the case.

"We don't know where the money went," Faunce said. "Hopefully he's got some money to pay back his victims."

For Mancini, the anger and betrayal still linger.

"A life sentence in jail would be too good for him," Mancini said.

Contact Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki: 586-826-7278 or mmwalsh@freepress.com

More Details: Keep money safe

Experts advise seniors to adhere to the following to protect their finances:
• Do not give information, such as Social Security numbers and bank account information, over the phone.
• Be wary of charities asking for money, even if they sound legitimate.
• Keep a close eye on wallets and purses.
• Be wary of people calling and saying they need money for a jailed or otherwise in distress relative. That's a favorite play of those scamming seniors.

To report a problem, call the Michigan Department of Human Services Adult Protective Services' 24-hour hotline at 800-996-6228.

Please read complete article at link below:


http://www.freep.com/article/20120116/NEWS04/201160335

Editor's note: "they didn't need it anyway" This should be the watchword and motto of the Probate Court of Cook County as they drain the life savings and lifelong creativity from the estates of elders. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com 

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