2 mean plead not guilty to bilking elderly Anchorage woman of millions of dollars
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A former nurse and former attorney took millions of dollars from an elderly Anchorage woman's trust fund, federal prosecutors said.
Brian Ben-Israel, 53, and Philip Myers, 60, both pleaded not guilty Wednesday, the Anchorage Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/XKCPsS).
In December, a grand jury indicted friends and business partners Ben-Israel and Myers for mail fraud. In February, jurors handed up a superseding indictment adding charges of wire fraud and, for Ben-Israel, charges of filing false tax returns.
Ben-Israel, once a registered nurse in Anchorage and now a Georgia resident, and Myers, a disbarred California lawyer still residing there, worked together to pilfer the accounts of Juanita Gielarowski, a longtime Anchorage resident and the widow of Thomas Gielarowski, documents said.
The two men emptied the Gielarowski trust, leaving Juanita destitute, according to court filings in a separate civil case. Without funds to pay for her in-home care, and with her house in foreclosure, Juanita was forced to live in a state-funded nursing home, where she died during the legal wrangling over the stolen money, according to the indictment and civil court filings.
Both men face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
In some instances, Ben-Israel asked Juanita Gielarowski to sign documents without her reading glasses, and the trusting woman abided, according to the civil court papers. He also wooed her daughter, who fell in love with him, even though he was in a relationship with another man, the court papers said
A judge in a civil case awarded the Gielarowskis' estate $7 million in punitive damages. The results of a separate medical-malpractice lawsuit brought against Ben-Israel and his employer at the time, Meridian Psychiatric Group, remain sealed.
Ben-Israel met Juanita Gielarowski and her daughter, Linda Stowers, while working in her home as a nurse, providing care to both women. In 2007, Ben-Israel gained control over Juanita Gielarowski's trust fund and, with her mental health deteriorating, made himself a beneficiary of the trust. He and Myers ultimately used funds from the trust to travel and transferred $2.8 million to a California-based company Myers owned: Typhoon Security Technology, which aimed to be a global leader in "explosives and weapons detection technology," the indictment said.
But past fraud cases involving Typhoon had caused the State of California to revoke the company's business license. When Ben-Israel and Myers were bilking Juanita Gielarowski, the company served only as a vessel through which the men could get at her money, the newspaper reported.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/805d68809f4747e0998109b1f5e379c1/AK--Elderly-Woman-Scammed
Brian Ben-Israel, 53, and Philip Myers, 60, both pleaded not guilty Wednesday, the Anchorage Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/XKCPsS).
In December, a grand jury indicted friends and business partners Ben-Israel and Myers for mail fraud. In February, jurors handed up a superseding indictment adding charges of wire fraud and, for Ben-Israel, charges of filing false tax returns.
Ben-Israel, once a registered nurse in Anchorage and now a Georgia resident, and Myers, a disbarred California lawyer still residing there, worked together to pilfer the accounts of Juanita Gielarowski, a longtime Anchorage resident and the widow of Thomas Gielarowski, documents said.
The two men emptied the Gielarowski trust, leaving Juanita destitute, according to court filings in a separate civil case. Without funds to pay for her in-home care, and with her house in foreclosure, Juanita was forced to live in a state-funded nursing home, where she died during the legal wrangling over the stolen money, according to the indictment and civil court filings.
Both men face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
In some instances, Ben-Israel asked Juanita Gielarowski to sign documents without her reading glasses, and the trusting woman abided, according to the civil court papers. He also wooed her daughter, who fell in love with him, even though he was in a relationship with another man, the court papers said
A judge in a civil case awarded the Gielarowskis' estate $7 million in punitive damages. The results of a separate medical-malpractice lawsuit brought against Ben-Israel and his employer at the time, Meridian Psychiatric Group, remain sealed.
Ben-Israel met Juanita Gielarowski and her daughter, Linda Stowers, while working in her home as a nurse, providing care to both women. In 2007, Ben-Israel gained control over Juanita Gielarowski's trust fund and, with her mental health deteriorating, made himself a beneficiary of the trust. He and Myers ultimately used funds from the trust to travel and transferred $2.8 million to a California-based company Myers owned: Typhoon Security Technology, which aimed to be a global leader in "explosives and weapons detection technology," the indictment said.
But past fraud cases involving Typhoon had caused the State of California to revoke the company's business license. When Ben-Israel and Myers were bilking Juanita Gielarowski, the company served only as a vessel through which the men could get at her money, the newspaper reported.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/805d68809f4747e0998109b1f5e379c1/AK--Elderly-Woman-Scammed
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