Showing posts with label probate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label probate. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Here's How The Great $41 Trillion Generational Wealth Transfer Is Intercepted By Probate Pirates

Here's How The Great $41 Trillion Generational Wealth Transfer Is Intercepted By Probate Pirates


NEW YORK (MainStreet) — It used to be that Theresa Lyons bartered with the elderly relatives in her family.

“My aging mother and her sister were helping me pay the rent, gas and electricity bills and I would take them out to eat and drive them around to where they needed to go,” said the single mother of three children.

That was until 2011 when Blanca Tozzo, Lyons’s aunt, passed away and her mother, Carmen Hernandez Tozzo, was placed in a retirement home in Florida once the Department of Children and Families (DCF) stepped in.

“I have no access to my mom's finances,” Lyons told MainStreet. “The only way I can get any money is through a subpoena and blessings from the probate judge.”

Once Tozzo became a ward of the state under a professional guardian, Lyons said most of her mother's $100,000 in retirement savings was drained.

“The guardian isolated and drugged my mom, placed her in a lock down area with mentally ill and psychotic patients where she suffered dozens of falls, cuts, bruises and was almost killed by one of the male residents,” said Lyons, who is in her 50s. “When I complained, my visitation was taken away.”

Lyons’s mother is among the senior citizens losing some $36.48 billion each year to elder financial abuse, according to a True Link study called Friendly Grandparent Syndrome.

“These numbers indicate how the guardianship industry destroys the legitimate inter-generational transfer of wealth and in the process irreparably damages entire generations of innocent families,” said Dr. Sam Sugar, founder of the Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship (AAAPG) in Miami.

That’s 12 times more than the previously reported $2.9 billion, because elders are ashamed and humiliated and in some cases drugged while residing in a retirement home.

“They often refuse to report this crime,” said Jack Halpern, CEO of My Elder Advocate, a franchise that works with families to solve elder care-related crises. “Elder financial abuse is probably the most unreported crime in the country.”

Some $16.9 billion of these losses a year comes from deceptive but technically legal tactics designed specifically to take advantage of older Americans, according to the 2015 True Link Report on Financial Elder Abuse. “This crime is shielded from public view because the criminal is most often a lawyer in probate court,” said Kristi Hood, author of the book Probate Pirates (JKH Publishing, 2015). “The probate pirate attorney either directly or indirectly finds a way to pick the pockets of the elderly ward of the state, taking money that should be used to care for the person or charging their adult children exorbitant legal fees for help.”

Uncannily similar to organized crime defined in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO), probate piracy can involve the involuntary redistribution of assets, which is also known as property poaching, with the elderly person becoming the enterprise that is defrauded.
"Unscrupulous charities, probate courts, home repair scammers, retirement homes, neighbors and even distant family members know that a friendly senior with cognitive issues is a potential gold mine,” said Kai Stinchcombe, CEO and founder of True Link.

Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers are reportedly expected to be the recipients of some $41 trillion from their World War 2 generation parents as they pass away.
 
"The transfer of wealth is going to last for the next 30 to 40 years," said Dan McElwee, certified financial planner and executive vice president with Ventura Wealth Management.
But an elderly adult who is extremely friendly is four times more likely to fall victim to high amounts of senior financial fraud.

“Those of us working in the field have long known that the United States is in the throes of an elder financial abuse epidemic,” said Shawna Reeves, director of elder abuse prevention at the Institute of Aging.

Adult Millennial and Gen X children who find their elderly Boomer and World War II-generation parents have been targeted with legal tactics designed to rob them can report the fraud to their local district attorney’s office, consumer protection agency, the state attorney general and even the local FBI office.

“We are all affected by these scams,” Halpern told MainStreet. “When an elder loses their assets to scam and they need care, they will have to look to welfare and Medicaid.”

Written by Juliette Fairley for MainStreet

Monday, May 5, 2014

Disbarred attorney accused of stealing from probate clients

Disbarred attorney accused of stealing from probate clients

SHARE 27 14 4 COMMENTMORE
Eleanor "Dorothy'' Thomas of Tempe lived a good, long life as a minister's wife. She taught high-school English, helped others, loved dogs and always was ready to debate politics until she died last summer at age 94.
But court records and Thomas' confidants point to one major mistake she might have made in her life — hiring Rodney M. Matheson, a now-disbarred Queen Creek probate attorney, to handle her estate.
About $1.2 million of Thomas' estate was supposed to go to a University of Arizona cancer research fund in memory of Dorothy and her late husband, David. But the money never was paid to the ­University of Arizona Foundation, according to court records.
Matheson, 69, was disbarred in September 2013 and arrested by Gilbert police in February. He is charged with two counts of fraudulent schemes and two counts of theft, with investigators accusing him of misappropriating as much as $6 million.
Prosecutors accused Matheson of orchestrating an elaborate shell game by taking money from two estates to satisfy a court order for payment of $800,000 to the Mayo Clinic, the major beneficiary of a third estate, according to court documents.
Lawyers are fighting in the courts for repayment of funds to the proper beneficiaries, if the money can be located. And Lee Stein, Matheson's new criminal attorney, has received more time to evaluate the complicated case and challenge his indictment.
Stein said it would be inappropriate to comment while a criminal case is pending.
Bonnie Rabin of Tucson said Thomas recommended Matheson to all her friends at Friendship ­Village, an upscale retirement community in Tempe.
"She was so thrilled with him. She said, 'He doesn't even charge me,' " Rabin said.
But Thomas and other clients could not have envisioned the ­misconduct Matheson is accused of committing while handling their trusts.
A Gilbert police detective estimated that as much as $6 million was stolen from three trusts and beneficiaries of deceased people. Attorneys working on the case unraveled the alleged thefts by subpoenaing an escrow account that probate lawyers use in administering estates and by combing through financial records, according to court documents. But even they concede that no one knows for certain how much money might have been misappropriated.
Matheson has been released on a $1 million bond and has a trial date set in October.
The case against Matheson started to emerge when Mayo Clinic filed a civil suit to collect $1.2 million left to the hospital as a beneficiary by the Mary Jane Schalow Trust. Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Rick Nothwehr started asking questions, as did Judge Andrew Klein, who took over the case.
Court records say Nothwehr and Klein were not satisfied with Matheson's answers on how he administered the trust. Klein eventually instructed Clare Black, a Gilbert attorney who discovered the reported misappropriations after she subpoenaed Matheson's financial records, to file a State Bar of Arizona complaint against Matheson, in addition to filing a police ­report, according to records.
At one point, Nothwehr ordered Matheson to make an $800,000 payment from the Schalow Trust to the Mayo Clinic, according to court documents.
The state Bar investigation found that more than $1 million had been depleted from the Schalow Trust by Matheson, Arizona Assistant Attorney General Joseph Waters wrote in court documents.
Wells Fargo bank records show "the defendant wrote himself checks totaling $988,231.40 as fees for work he claimed to complete for his various clients," even though an audit found he should not have received most of the fees, Waters wrote.
Matheson was acting as an attorney for St. Paul, Minn., resident Roger Manthey in late 2007 or early 2008 when Matheson told Manthey that administration of the trust was virtually complete, ­according to records.
But Manthey ended up as the initial target of Mayo's efforts to collect the money and Nothwehr issued a fiduciary warrant for his arrest at one point. Manthey wrote in court records that he had no idea that Mayo never received the money from his aunt's estate —or that he had been sued— because Matheson never informed him.
Manthey declined comment, citing the criminal case against Matheson, but he made his feelings clear in court records that are ­included in the probate case.
"This whole experience has been very troublesome to me," Manthey wrote. "I am unable to sleep, and I have a constant knot in my stomach. I am a well-respected, retired school teacher who has always tried to do the right thing."
When a court commissioner ­ordered Matheson to verify that Manthey was the source of a $500,000 payment to the Mayo ­clinic, Matheson produced a letter from Manthey as affirmation, but Manthey had no idea what was ­going on in Arizona, according to records.
"Mr. Matheson went as far to create a false letter from Mr. Manthey that he placed in his file that was allegedly provided with the $500,000 payment," Black wrote in the Bar complaint.
Instead, Matheson used funds from the Loehndorf Trust, another estate he administered, to make a $500,000 payment to the Mayo Clinic, according to Waters' court document. Suspicious about the source of the money, Mayo Clinic eventually turned over the funds to Superior Court for safekeeping, according to court documents. A spokesman for the Mayo Clinic ­declined to comment.
The courts are now attempting to sort out where all the money went and to return it to the rightful owners. On March 12, Klein ordered $337,500 that was misappropriated from the Loehndorf Trust returned to its owners.
The criminal charges against Matheson are unrelated to the Thomas Trust, which was left to the cancer research fund. Tucson attorney Lindsay Brew, who represents the University of Arizona Foundation, wrote in court documents that Matheson also misappropriated $1.2 million from the Thomas Trust to pay off his debts from the depleted Schalow Trust to Mayo Clinic.
Brew wrote in court records that he is seeking repayment of $162,500 that he says was misappropriated from the Thomas Trust. Brew also is arguing that Matheson filed a bogus addendum to Thomas' will shortly before her death, cutting out the University of Arizona and naming Matheson as beneficiary.
Tom Asimou, a probate attorney not involved in the Matheson matter, said he has seen similar cases every few years and his advice is simple:
■ If you don't think your attorney is giving a straight answer, get another attorney to take the matter before a judge
■ Name a bank as either trustee or personal representative of the trust
■ The bank will charge a fee but it also provides protection against stolen funds
"People get penny-wise and pound foolish with these things," Asimou said.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

State Investigating Ohio Probate Judge Mark Belinky

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark would like to see, "State Investigating Illinois Probate Judge xxxxx  xxxxxx".  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com


State Investigating Ohio Probate Judge Mark Belinky
A Mahoning County judge is the subject of an investigation.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation tells 21 News that two search warrants were issued in the city Friday for electronic and paper files.
 
One search warrant was executed at Mahoning County Probate Judge Mark Belinky's office at the Mahoning County Court House on Friday.   The other warrant was served at Belinky's home in Boardman Township.
 
Agents from the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, the FBI and the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office assisted in the searches.
 
Judge Belinky did return a call to 21 News and issued a statement saying, "On the advice of counsel I will only say that since my election, I have faithfully discharged my duties as Judge of the Mahoning County Probate Court."
 
Judge Belinky has had financial problems in the past.  Three years ago the Internal Revenue Service filed a lien against Belinky's home, stating he owed more than $32,000 in federal income taxes.  Last year, Judge Belinky was taken to court by a Florida man over a $20,000 debt.
 
The Judge has not been charged with any crime.
 

Sunday, October 27, 2013

ACA palliative care provisions open new door for probate, property rights abuse

ACA palliative care provisions open new door for probate, property rights abuse



See also

Palliative care is a term with which increased numbers of Americans have become familiar since 2009 with the debate and passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Stated simply, it’s medical care administered as a replacement to medical treatment. It’s also key to the “death panels” Obamacare opponents predict.
Following the June 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the new healthcare law, the Center to Advance Palliative Care issued this statement:
The Center to Advance Palliative Care is pleased that the Affordable Care Act, with its aims to expand access to quality healthcare for all Americans, will continue to positively affect healthcare delivery in the United States. With increased access to care, and the development of enhanced quality measures, more seriously ill patients and families will receive the high quality, effective care they need to reduce suffering and live longer, healthier lives. This benefit is of the utmost importance to CAPC and the field of palliative care, as the patients we treat are the sickest, most vulnerable people in our nation’s healthcare system.
A 2009 article, Obamacare: Stimulus for estate abuse?, described how disgruntled family members, wannabe heirs or unscrupulous members of the legal industry will find Obamacare helpful with Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions in which probate venues or instruments like wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney are used to divert assets from intended heirs or beneficiaries. Palliative care was also discussed:
Palliative care, a common end-of-life care component, is defined as any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing disease symptom severity rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness. While used with aggressive treatment, it is also a common alternative for patients who decline prolonged, expensive efforts. Performed under the guise of government-run health care, it’s likely to become a mandated, state-sponsored doping of sick Americans deemed unsuitable for proactive medical treatment.
Elder financial abuse is frequently termed the crime of the 21st century. Estate looting and other probate abuse often fall into this category. Estate disputes frequently include allegations of undue influence with the role of medication being a common point of contention. If palliative care becomes a major tool in the government’s arsenal of health care cost-cutting measures, predators will seize this opportunity.
These concerns are now bolstered as CNS News reports how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is “soliciting applications for federal grants worth up to $275,000 to research ways to provide elderly patients with ‘palliative care’ – even in hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units.”
The article explains:
Palliative care is commonly understood to mean medical treatment that focuses on relieving symptoms, including pain, instead of trying to treat or cure the underlying disease.
But researchers will not be studying the use of palliative care to relieve the suffering of dying patients. “Hospice and end-of-life settings are not included within the scope” of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the grant notices specifically state.
Instead, they will be looking at new ways to provide elderly patients with palliative care long before they are at death’s door.
The palliative care will be provided in “a variety of settings, including ambulatory care, hospitals (and specific sites within hospitals including specialty wards, intensive care units and emergency departments), assisted living facilities, and short- and long-term care facilities.”
The federal money will be used to “advance [the] science of geriatric palliative care… in settings and at time points earlier in geriatric patients’ diseases or disability trajectories,” according to the grant notices (PA-13-354, 355 & 356).
One of the grants is categorized under NIH’s R21 Exploratory/Developmental grants, defined on the agency’s website as “novel studies that break new ground or extend previous discoveries toward new directions or applications.”
“Isolate, medicate, steal the estate” is a phrase commonly associated with IRA acts. The medicate phase offers great opportunity for the use of undue influence that can lead to late-in-life and uncharacteristic estate plan changes. Abandoning proactive medical treatments to artificially incapacitate our seniors in the name of “palliative care” will aid unscrupulous individuals in estate hijacking pursuits. Similar concerns can be raised for the disabled or younger people with terminal illness or life-threatening injuries – especially individuals attached to a significant estate as legal settlements can provide.
The Obama administration and other congressional leaders claim this new system will be better for all Americans. The federal government wants us to trust it with a plan forcing a majority of Americans to forfeit a flawed, but functioning health care system in pursuit of a plan that already is driving up insurance costs, failing to attract the young, healthy people on who its premium structure is based and prompting a move of workers to the plan as employers drop increasingly-expensive coverage.
Estate abuse and probate corruption already threaten the property rights of Americans and their heirs’ or beneficiaries’ inheritance rights. Provisions of Obamacare – specifically doping rather than treating certain population segments – will add to the problem. People get upset when such acts impact their families, but are usually clueless and largely uncaring to these threats’ widespread nature as well as the predictability of more abusive actions that Obamacare with its expansion of palliative care measures can’t help but bring.
Routine treatment of estate thefts as civil rather than criminal matters has already provided growth opportunities for the legal industry in addition to generating incentives for others desiring to divert assets from intended heirs and beneficiaries. Increased numbers of heavily-medicated, especially

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Prison life dawns on Chan

Editor's note:  If China's justice can punish a forger, why can't America's justice punish the forgers given a pass by Judge Kawamoto and the Probate Court of Cook County, IL USA?


Prison life dawns on Chan

Kelly Ip Monday, July 08, 2013

Tony Chan Chun-chuen yesterday spent the first of what's expected to be as many as 600 Sundays behind bars.
The former feng shui practitioner, also known as Peter Chan, received two concurrent 12-year terms for forging late Chinachem tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum's will and using a false instrument. An eight-member High Court jury found him guilty on Thursday after two days of deliberations.The forged will made Chan the heir to Wang's multibillion-dollar estate.After three nights at the Stanley Prison hospital, Chan had been expected to be moved to a Grade B cell today.But after he expressed fears that he may be attacked or harassed by other prisoners, Correctional Service Department Commissioner Sin Yat-kin used his discretionary power to put him in one of the Grade A cells, which are more closely guarded and hold more serious offenders, such as murderers, robbers, drug traffickers and kidnappers.
ADVERTISEMENT


Infamous prisoners such as robber Yip Kai-foon, who used an AK47 assault rifle to rob jewelry shops, are among those housed in Grade A cells.Grade A prisoners are assigned jobs such as making road signs, and are mostly locked up in their cells. Like the rest, Chan must wake up at 6.30am and return to his cell at 7.30pm.On Saturday, Chan's wife Tam Miu- ching arrived at the jail with their daughter and Chan's brother Chan Chun-kwok to give him some personal items.But Tam later walked out with the items still in her hands, suggesting they did not meet department requirements.The three later had dinner at The Mira hotel with pastor Enoch Lam Yee-nok who baptized Chan. It is believed they discussed a possible appeal.In passing sentence on Friday, Justice Andrew Macrae said Chan is a charlatan who cruelly took advantage of a sad, lonely and tragic widow."Cruel, because by this forgery not only did you insult Nina Wang's friendship, but egregious because had you succeeded, you would have cheated a charitable foundation," Justice Macrae said. "I have no doubt ... that you are nothing more than a clever and no doubt beguiling charlatan."Chan, 53, was also ordered to pay about HK$2 million toward the cost of a preliminary inquiry he had requested.Wang died of cancer in April 2007, aged 69. She lavished millions on Chan, who she met in 1992 while looking for a feng shui master to help find her husband, Teddy Wang Tei-huei, kidnapped in 1990. His body was never found.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Show Reminder - Marti Oakley - Boston Probate: Targeting wealthy elders

Show Reminder - Marti Oakley - Boston Probate: Targeting wealthy elders
Inbox
x

BlogTalkRadio
6:08 PM (1 hour ago)
to me
BTR Logo

Hi there,

A show you are following on BlogTalkRadio is about to go on air! (At any time, you can edit the shows you follow from here
and manage how you'd like to be notified of upcoming shows here in the "Notifications" tab.)
Show Details
Show: Boston Probate: Targeting wealthy elders

Date/Time: Apr 21, 2013 7:00 PM CDT
Description: Join us this evening as Lisa Belanger joins us from Boston to report on the ongoing abuses in the Boston probate system. Boston, which is notorious for forcing court employees, attorneys and others out of the system for refusing to participate in the corruption, rolls on in its efforts to target and loot the estates of elderly individuals who committed what must be the new age crime of "aging with assets". All to benefit the ward of course! Across the country, an estimated 3 billion is stolen from vulnerable elderly individuals annually in what is nothing less than grand larceny with the sole intention of personally profiting from theft of an estate. All of it sanctioned and facilitated by the probate court judges.
Listen: Click to listen.
Or copy and paste the link below:
http://www.Blogtalkradio.com/marti-oakley/2013/04/22/boston-probate-targeting-wealthy-elders

To listen by phone or to call in with questions to the host, dial (917)388-4520.

Enjoy the show,

The BlogTalkRadio Team

Please Note
In order to help new hosts get started on the network, we set up all host accounts to automatically follow our educational programs on BlogTalkRadio University: Planning Committee, Marketing Club, Tech Lab and Study Hall.
Host Your Own Show on BlogTalkRadio
It’s free and sign up takes less than 60 seconds. Register today.

Already a Host? Check out BlogTalkRadio’s Premium host services and take your show to the next level. Explore Premium.
To stop receiving these notifications or to adjust your notification settings, go to your settings page.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Death via probate court: An American Horror Story

Death via probate court: An American Horror Story
7 Comments
strip banner
new-logo25Marti Oakley ©copyright 2013 All Rights Reserved

__________________________________________________________________________

Why am I in probate? I’m not dead!

Across the country an American Horror Story is unfolding as massive numbers of elderly individuals who have committed the heinous crime of [aging with assets], now find themselves in probate court and officially declared dead in the law by virtue of being declared an incompetent ward of the state. This is human trafficking sanctioned by not only the courts, but also by congresses, both state and federal who are well aware of these organized criminal activities, but who refused to acknowledge or act to defend the elderly from these predators.
This fictional declaration of death via probate court, is a careful construct patterned after the organized crime rings operating in family courts. In one court we abduct, sell and trade minor children, and in the other we abduct, sell and exploit the lives and finances of the elderly. Everyone involved, from the so-called
probate court oversight
probate court oversight
protection agencies, judges, commercial predatory guardians, medical providers, hospitals, nursing homes and walls of unethical and immoral attorneys, line up to take a piece of the pie.
The pie can also be comprised of the monetary value in the Medicare/Medicaid system where targeted victims can be worth a million or more in inflated medical charges, padded medical billing, padded bills for doctors, insurance payments, thefts of social security benefits, VA benefits and whatever else may be out there in the way of grants, funding and subsidy.
Many times the “pie” can be comprised of liquid assets, stocks, bonds, property, valuable art and jewelry…..all of which can disappear into the accounts and pockets of the predators just as fast as the facilitating probate judge can declare the individual not only dead in the law, but incompetent as well.
Guardian and ward: legal definition
A guardian must take inventory and collect all the assets of the ward. Where permitted by law, title is taken in the ward’s name. Otherwise, the guardian owns the property “as guardian” for the ward, which indicates that the guardian has the legal right to hold or sell the property but must not use it for his or her personal benefit. The guardian must determine the value of the property and file a list of assets and their estimated value with the court. The guardian must collect the assets promptly, and is liable to the ward’s estate for any loss incurred owing to a failure to act promptly. (emphasis added)
Unfortunately, for those guardianized, the legal right to hold or sell property now claimed by the predatory commercial guardian, is used to benefit the predator personally. Promptness as described in the legal definitions, is taken to new heights as predatory commercial guardians move at the speed of light to begin re-titling of property, seizure of accounts, transferring of personal funds, liquidation of any remaining assets; all of it ending up in the accounts or in the name of the predator, an attorney and/or a working partner to whom the properties are sold for pennies on the dollar.
This system of legalized grand larceny conducted by state agencies, attorneys, predator guardians, corrupt probate judges and other agencies and actors, is condoned and covered up by higher court judges and those phony judicial oversight boards that exist in every situation.
In any other situation in your life, if someone you know proceeded to steal all your life savings and property’s, transferred all of what you had accumulated into their accounts and pockets against your objections: if they had done this by drugging you, isolating you, and misrepresenting you, these people would be charged with federal kidnap and abduction, and grand larceny.
Yet via these phony probate courts and these corrupt probate judges these systems of asset theft, kidnapping, isolation, forced medication and abuse are sanctioned every day of the week. All to benefit the ward, of course.

Dead men can’t speak

Guardianship is in fact the declaration of death of the still living person. To become a ward of the state is to become non-existent. Your existence has been nullified by the label of “ward”. You have no rights. You have no protections. You have no voice! Once declared a ward of the state, you can no longer “speak” in your own voice to the court. You cannot defend yourself, express your desires, or object to the diversion of your assets to predators whose sole interest in you is looting your estate. After all, you are dead! Probate only becomes active upon producing of a death certificate. Guardianship is a de facto death certificate, even though the victim is quite alive.
To achieve the label of “incompetent after being declared legally dead”, victims are forcibly drugged with massive doses of drugs such as Zyprexa, Seroquel, Haldol and other like pharmaceuticals. These drugs can cause the exacerbation of dementia if it is present, or, can cause the onset of dementia, sudden death, and cause the victim to appear dysfunctional, semi-conscious often rendering them unable to speak or to even hold their heads upright. These drugs also cause episodes of aggression and violent behavior in some victims. It is in this condition that they are brought before the probate judge who knows full well they have been forcibly drugged to appear in this state. Even knowing this, they still declare the “dead in the law” victim to be incompetent.
Probate is a term that is used in several different ways. Probate can refer to the act of presenting a will to a court officer for filing — such as, to “probate” a will. But in a more general sense, probate refers to the method by which your estate is administered and processed through the legal system after you die.” (emphasis, mine)
“With a valid will: If you have a valid will, then your will determines how your estate is transferred during probate and to whom.
Without a valid will: If you don’t have a will, or if you die partially intestate, where only part of your estate is covered by a valid will, the laws where you live specify who gets what parts of your estate.”( End quotes)
In the law of evidence, a rule that prevents a person making a claim against an estate from testifying about statements, actions, or promises made by the deceased person.
It is a routine matter for corrupt probate judges to discard and declare void any pre-existing directives, wills, trusts, surrogate medical powers, durable powers of attorney, and any other document prepared well in advance of the targeting of the elder with assets. Of course, to achieve this magical feat of judicial malfeasance, the targeted individual must first be declared a ward of the state i.e., DEAD.

There is no law we will not break

So greedy are these courts and their agents, that it is now routine and common for the business affairs to be audited three years back, just in case something of value was sold, traded or given away. If nothing is found to have transpired that would have cheated the predator out of more of your assets, the courts will go back six years in some cases.
And just so you know, that declaration of incompetency as the result of massive doses of off-label psychotropic drugs to render you dysfunctional is now obviously retro-active. This means the court in its efforts to help predator guardians, attorneys and others, steal as much from you as possible has now determined that they can look back three to six years and determine that you must have been incompetent then, also. Apparently, by this magical view into the past, you must also have been dead as much as six years ago. So whatever you sold, traded and gave away, the court will move to have returned to the estate.
This is how legalized theft, the commission of grand larceny, operates in the courts.
The only thing that can be concluded is that aging, accompanied by accumulated wealth that should be dispersed to heirs when death occurs, is now a criminal act. There is no other way to explain the exploitation, the institutional abuse and neglect, the forced medication with off-label drugs and the theft of estates to benefit the financial enrichment of the predators.
An attorney is appointed for you to represent you in court. This attorney is not likely to do anything other than find ways to file frivolous motions which result in fees assessed to the estate. In almost every instance, these attorneys are working in tandem with the attorneys who represent the commercial predatory guardian and everyone is making money off the targeted victim. It is a lose/lose situation for the victim and the family.
It has become routine for attorneys to charge massive retainer fees, additional fees for work they supposedly did during their term as legal representative for the families of victims, to then stop at the door of the court room where the case is to be heard, turn to the families and say “I can’t represent you”……..and walk away.
No refunds of the thousands and thousands of dollars the family scrapped together, no apologies for the unethical and unprofessional conduct, and absolutely not so much as a slap on the wrist from the ubiquitous protection racket that is the Bar Association.

This is a true American Horror Story. The dead do walk among us……we call them wards of the state.

_______________________________________________________________________

http://ppjg.me/2013/04/10/death-via-probate-court-an-american-horror-story/

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

2629

by jmdenison
From: kenneth ditkowsky
Sent: Apr 2, 2013 10:13 PM
To: Janet Phelan , JoAnne M Denison , Atty Ken Ditkowsky , Gloria S , "richardbusselaw@gmail.com" , "verenusl@gmail.com" , "nasga.org@gmail.com" , "acluofillinois@aclu-il.org" , "matt_abbott@kirk.senate.gov" , "nkarp@aarp.org" , "statesattorney@cookcountyil.gov" , "sheriff.dart@cookcountyil.gov" , "michael@activistpost.com" , "michiganadvocacyproject@gmail.com" , , "scottcevans@hotmail.com" , "janetcphelan@yahoo.com"
Subject: Re: Convention Against Torture---Guardianship
APPEAL TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
JIM CROW IS ALIVE AND WELL
At all times relevant Mary Sykes was a well-adjusted female, aged 93 years old. In approximately 2005, Mary’s older daughter took her a lawyer. When they emerged a series of documents surfaced that were deceptive and misleading; however, the intended effect was clear. The older daughter was to have full and complete control over the mother’s substantial estate.
Unfortunately for the older daughter Mary discovered what had happened to her when she examined her bank account and discovered that $4000 had been removed from her account by the older daughter. Mary confronted the daughter and was told “mom, I invested your funds in an IRA” Even Mary knew that at her age she was not eligible to invest in an IRA and after an altercation Mary sought an order of Protection in the Circuit Court. The Court personnel helped her prepare the verified petition.
The daughter responded with a Petition to have a guardian appointed for Mary Sykes. Even though Mary’s treating physician refused to sign the ‘doctor’s report’ the Judge advised the older daughter to find another doctor. An ethically challenged doctor who would attest to both President Obama and President Bush being in need of a plenary guardian – such as the older daughter- was quickly found and he executed the documents.
Even though the Legislature, the Appellate Court of Illinois and the Supreme Court of Illinois have been very specific as to the notice requirements (755 ILCS 5/11a – 10) that are required for the Court to obtain jurisdiction the Circuit Court of Cook County, Probate Division ignored the mandate. Thus, without jurisdiction the Court appointed two guardian ad litem and a plenary guardian. These ‘clout’ rich miscreants immediately joined their quest and they submitted an agreed order to the willing judge who promptly appointed the older daughter as the plenary guardian with authority to separate Mary Sykes from her liberty, property, civil rights and human rights.
Mary was totally separated from her siblings, her young daughter, her friends, her neighbors, her home and all that was important to her. Her property was confiscated and not inventoried. [A large gold coin collection valued at a million dollars was not inventoried – see Gloria Sykes affidavit] Every attempt by family, neighbors, friends et al was thwarted by the cottage industry that has grown around these elder abuse/financial exploitation cases. Even the Illinois Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission joined to attempt to silence this atrocity. Attorneys who spoke up were subjected to Disciplinary proceedings in direct defiance of the First Amendment.
The entire story is set forth in the probate file of Mary Sykes housed in the Circuit Court of Cook County 69 W. Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois. The First four volumes are now on-line on Attorney JoAnne Denison’s web-site.
This saga is repeated every single day in Probate and orphan’s courts across the United States of Illinois. Alleged abusers and other miscreants are given absolute control over seniors with little or no concern for civil rights, human rights, statutory protections or common decency. In the Sykes case all the protections afforded by Law have been ignored. A simple Jurisdictional precaution such as naming and serving all the close relatives prior to an incompetency hearing for Mary Sykes was ignored and two years later continues to be ignored.
Just for the record the incompetency hearing provides for standard of proof referred to as ‘clear and convincing.’ The agreement of three interested people to the detriment of the alleged incompetent is disingenuous. Other protections most of which are jurisdictional have been equally observed by avoidance or just distorting the truth.
One of the easiest ways for a dictator or a criminal to destroy dissent is to have opponent ‘put away’ as crazy, incompetent, etc. Today, as reported on the Blogs and the Report of the United States Government Accounting office is the rampage of Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation of the Elderly. Sheriff Dart (Cook County) sponsored a conference that addressed this serious problem. The most vicious of these criminal conspiracies is promulgated by the appointment by the Courts of avarice motivated clout heavy individuals who are not burdened by the Judio- Christian Ethic that permeates American Law. By Court orders, as occurred in the Sykes case, a plenary guardian is appointed (whether the individual needs such assistance of not) and this plenary guardian exercises complete control over the person and property of the victim.
With the aid of a ‘rubber stamp’ Judge, who approves whatever whim and desire of the guardian put before him (the judge) the senior’s liberty and human rights are forfeited. As long as the money holds out the senior is kept from obtaining his/her final resting place; however, as is indicated in Scott Evan’s affidavit the interim between the guardian’s appointment and final reward may be a living hell!
Lincoln freed the slaves! You and I by our procrastination have made our senior citizens the new victims of an even more vicious Jim Crow than existed in the 1860’s. The new Klu Klux Klan headquarters in our probate courts. A written order signed by judge substitutes for burning a cross or a worn bed sheet.
I urge Law Enforcement and particularly the Sheriff of Cook County and the States Attorney of Cook County to independently and fully investigate the Sykes case
There are hundreds of people similarly situated who are literally dying for Law Enforcement to investigate the incarceration and looting of their mothers, fathers, brothers et al estates by Court appointed miscreants. The ‘rape’ of the seniors in the United States is a National disgrace. The ‘cover up’ is outrageous and a testament to the breakdown of the American culture. The terrorist threat is from within! We by our failure to root out the criminals who take advantage of the Justice System to destroy the lifetimes of saving and hard work of our mothers, father’s et al are disingenuous. Every day that the guardians appointed in the Sykes case continue their nefarious actions is a sad day for every single citizen and another lesson to our children and grandchildren that if you have ‘clout’ it does not matter what the law says.
Ken Ditkowsky
Ken Ditkowsky
jmdenison | April 3, 2013 at 2:27 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/s209wH-2629
Comment See all comments

Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions.
Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
http://marygsykes.com/2013/04/03/2629/

Monday, February 25, 2013

Attorney Charged with Ethics Complaint over Probate Blog

Editor’s note: This Shark has noted that the Denison Blog story has gone viral on the internet. A few of the hundreds of commentaries are listed at the bottom of this post. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

 

Attorney Charged with Ethics Complaint over Probate Blog

Every now and then, blogging will get someone in “trouble.” See e.g. Rakofsky v. Internet, in which one Joseph Rakofsky sued a whole bunch of bloggers and other media over their posts criticizing among other things, his competency and ethics. I put the words “trouble” in quotes, because just because someone sues, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the blogger was in the wrong. I myself have been contacted a few times by various people who did not like what I wrote in my own posts and requested that I take it down.
Now, according to the National Law Journal, the Illinois Attorney and Registration and Disciplinary Commission filed a complaint against patent and trademark attorney attorney Joanne Denison, because of her “probate blog.
Yes, you read that right. Why is a patent attorney writing a probate blog?
According to the complaint, and the NLJ story, Denison’s posts describe a contested guardianship in which she at first, personally represented one of the litigants. However, on December 7, 2009, the Court disqualified her from representing [one of the parties] due to the fact that Denison notarized the signatures of her client and the Ward (who had not yet been declared incapacitated) on a document that gave her client the Ward’s entire interest in a lawsuit at a time when the Ward may have been suffering from dementia.
Two years later, while the case was still ongoing, Denison began her blog marygsykes, with “Mary G. Sykes” being the name of the incapacitated person in the above referenced case. The ethics complaint cites to a number of Denison’s posts in which Denison accuses the judges, the probate system, and the guardians ad litem of being “corrupt.”
I’ve read a bit of Denison’s blog and one thing is for sure – she is angry. But she is angry at what she sees to be major injustices in the Guardianship systems, both in Cook County, and elsewhere. More recently, she is angry at the Illinois Attorney and Registration and Disciplinary Commission disregard of the First Amendment.
I certainly would never call my local probate judges “corrupt.” First, because they’re not, and second, because I value my livelihood. Ms. Denison wrote a large volume of lengthy posts. The complaint seems to cherry pick some of the more incendiary language with the intent of shutting her up.
Although I don’t necessarily agree with her tactics, as a blogger who is in favor of more free speech for attorneys vs. less, I’m rooting for Ms. Denison. At least for now.



http://www.sofloridaestateplanning.com/2013/02/articles/probate-1/attorney-charged-with-ethics-complaint-over-probate-blog/

http://lberezin.com/2013/02/04/lawyer-faces-ethics-charges-for-blogging-about-corruption-in-illinois-probate-system/

http://www.ctlawtribune.com/PubArticleCT.jsp?id=1202586530125&Attorneys_blogging_prompts_ethics_complaint_&slreturn=20130124210350

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_blog_posts_about_sleazy_world_of_probate_bring_ethics_complaint/

http://lawandmore.typepad.com/law_and_more/2013/02/joanne-denison-hit-with-ethics-violation-now-that-blogging-is-mature-medium.html

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202586530125&Attorneys_blogging_prompts_ethics_complaint_

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2013/02/attorney-faces-possible-disciplinary-action-for-her-blog.html

http://thedailyrecord.com/ontherecord/2013/02/07/to-blog-or-not-to-blog/

http://lawyerswithtroubles.wordpress.com/category/rules-of-court/

http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/estate-elderlaw/blogs/estateplanningandprobateblog/archive/2013/02/06/attorney-charged-with-ethics-complaint-over-probate-blog.aspx

http://www.globallegalpost.com/global-view/patent-lawyer-in-hot-water-over-blog-64101574/#.USrJQ4WxpZ0

http://themedicalmalpracticecases.com/attorneys-blogging-prompts-ethics-complaint/

http://blog.martindale.com/chicago-attorney-faces-ethics-violation-for-airing-grievances-on-blog

http://quest.law.com/Search/Search.do?Ntt=Illinois+Attorney+Registration+and+Disciplinary+Commission&x=0&y=0&Nty=1&site=nlj&N=8357&Ntk=SI_All&cx=1&sortVar=1

http://www.estateofdenial.com/2013/02/10/attorneys-blogging-prompts-ethics-complaint-il/

http://lberezin.com/2013/02/04/lawyer-faces-ethics-charges-for-blogging-about-corruption-in-illinois-probate-system/